The impasse over granting forestland for the Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project has been resolved

Jamshedpur, Aug. 9: The deadlock over sanctioning of forest land for the state’s largest water and irrigation project — Subarnarekha Multipurpose Project (SMP) — was resolved today with the forest department finally giving the authorities concerned the go-ahead to utilise 1,800 hectares of land for the project.

The decision was taken at a meeting between SMP and forest department officials here today. The meeting was attended by senior officials, including regional chief conservator of forest (RCCF) A.K. Singh, conservator of forest K.K. Chatterjee and chief engineer of SMP, Shaligram Singh.

Forest department sources said it was agreed upon during the meeting that SMP authorities would provide non-forest land to the department equivalent to the 1,800 hectares of forest land covering four forest divisions — Chaibasa north, Chaibasa south, Dhalbhum and the wildlife division — spread over East Singhbhum, West Singhbhum and Seraikela-Kharswan.

According to sources, 1,800 hectares of non-forest land has been identified and procured by SMP authorities in Rajnagar block of Seraikela-Kharswan district. The land will be handed over to the forest department for plantation and other related activities soon.

The land issue has been sorted out after more than five years. The project, which was started in 1985 to facilitate irrigation to the state and also some parts of Orissa and West Bengal, received a jolt after the forest department refused to grant land.

SMP authorities had earlier proposed that they would pay for the land utilised. The department turned down the offer, demanding instead an equivalent area of land in lieu of the forestland utilised for the project.

Divisional forest officer (DFO), Dhalbhum, Satyajit Singh told The Telegraph that forest department officials would soon do a spot-verification of the land being offered by the SMP auhtorities at Rajnagar block.

Seraikela DFO Paritosh Upadhyay has been made the nodal officer for the verification. He will submit a report to the state forest ministry by August 31. According to Singh, the government will initiate steps to notify the land as protected forest area based on the report.