Agartala, June 19: Tripura chief secretary R.K. Mathur has received a notice from the Supreme Court directing him to appear in person and explain within three weeks why the apex court’s directives regarding regrouping of tribal villages on forest land were violated.

Mathur, who is out of station, could not be contacted for comment.

A source said the Tripura government had launched the village-regrouping programme in February 2004 to segregate common tribals from being attacked by armed militants. Secure new villages were built for tribals on forestland beside highways and major roads.

The Union ministry of forest and environment had sanctioned the project on 462 hectares of forest land, directing the state government to adhere to the directives given from time to time on environmental issues. The issue was taken up with the apex court in the form of a public interest litigation (PIL).

The apex court banned implementation of the project on forest land. But on January 6 last year, at a meeting presided over by minister for tribal welfare Jiten Chowdhury, officials of the tribal welfare department referred to the court order but resolved to go ahead with the project citing “pending clearance by the Supreme Court”.

Former principal chief conservator of forests M.A. Khan apprised the high- powered monitoring committee.

A highly-placed source in the forest department said the tribal welfare department has been putting the incumbent chief conservator R.P. Tangwan under pressure to transfer 10 hectares of forest land in Khumlung, the headquarters of the Autonomous District Council (ADC). “We can never do this legally because according to the Forest Conservation Act, nobody can do this. But the tribal welfare department is putting us under pressure,” a source said, adding that in 1989, the tribal welfare department had set up a residential Eklabya School at Khumlung as part of a central government scheme on forest land without the forest department’s permission.

In April this year, the state government decided to upgrade the school and sought affiliation from the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). The CBSE asked for a report along with documents showing the status and ownership of the land. This put the tribal welfare department in a soup. Acting reportedly at the behest of Chowdhury, director of the department L. Darlong and commissioner Shailen Das have been pressuring the forest department to regularise the illegal possession of the land with retrospective effect.