The NGT, in its August 16, 2018, order, had stated that a former principal chief conservator of forests and a divisional forest officer had deliberately ignored the fact that the trees stood in the area demarcated as protected forest and it was a willful violation of the Forest Conservation Act. Sources said the state had deputed Additional Chief Secretary-cum-Financial Commissioner, Taxation, MP Singh to conduct the probe, but the bureaucrat retired last month without submitting the report. The Tribunal observed that its orders, reaffirmed by the apex court, had directed the Chief Secretary to appoint an inquiry officer not below the rank of Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) to fix the responsibility of the officials, if any, for violation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. In December last year, an application was moved by Nishant Kumar Alag against the state government for not implementing the NGT orders for one-and-a-half-years.
The Secretary, Punjab Irrigation (Water Resources Department), has been asked to be present on the next date of hearing i.e. The Tribunal has directed the Chief Secretary to file a personal affidavit as to why the directions issued on August 16, 2018, have not been complied with. Taking a serious note of the failure on part of the state to comply with the directions passed by the Tribunal and the Supreme Court, a double Bench of the NGT, comprising Justice Raghuvendra S Rathore and member Satyawan Singh Garbyal, observed that no counsel on behalf of the state through its Chief Secretary and anyone on behalf of the Punjab Irrigation Department through its secretary appeared before it.
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