Jamshedpur/Ranchi: The state will soon have a functional Jharkhand State Wetlands Authority, said chief minister Raghubar Das while interacting with the media at Sonari Airport before leaving for Ranchi at 3.15 pm on Thursday.
"The state forest minister (the chief minister holds the portfolio) will be nominated chairman of the authority while the chief secretary will be its vice-chairperson. The authority will have a technical committee and an experts' committee constituted within 90 days from today (Thursday)," Das said.
The government's move follows the Union ministry of environment, forest, climate change's (MoEFCC) notification of the wetlands (conservation & management) rules, 2017, in September last year. The rules call for setting up wetlands authorities in all states and Union territories to be headed by the environment minister.
According to sources in the chief minister's office, the wetlands authority will also have five non-government members with a tenure of three years.
"The authority will conduct physical verification at of wetlands shown in digital and satellite maps at the ground level and take steps for demarcation after which it would recommend to the state government for notifying areas as wetlands," said an official.
Activities like conversion of wetlands, disposal of waste, construction activities and discharge of effluents from units would be monitored by the authority.
On anti-Naxalite operations, Das said Jharkhand had set a target of getting rid of Left wing insurgency by 2018. "The CRPF, BSF and state police are jointly carrying out operations in Maoist strongholds of Saranda and Palamau. They have achieved significant success," he said.
SC/ST act
In tune with other BJP ruled states, Jharkhand has decided to file a review petition in Supreme Court against its order on SC/ST act with Das issuing necessary directives to the state home department.
Home secretary S.K.G. Rahate said that the state government would file a review petition in SC at the earliest. "Few days back, we had sent the file for CM's approval. Today (Thursday), he gave his nod. Now, we will file the petition as soon as possible," he told The Telegraph.
He said the decision to go for a review petition was a conscious decision of the government keeping in mind Jharkhand's local demography related to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
Notably, as per the 2011 census, Jharkhand has a total population of 3.29 crore of which 28 per cent are scheduled tribes, 12 per cent scheduled caste and rest others.
Ratan Tirkey, member of the state tribal advisory council, welcomed the move but said it should have been done earlier.
"Jharkhand should have chosen to take the lead by approaching Supreme Court much before and not remain in a wait-and-watch mode to send a positive message to the SC/ST community," he said.
