Letter:
A local daily publication NOW dated Saturday, 21st April, 2012 carried the news-item as “Forest Clearance holds up progress on Sikkim Side” in connection with the “First motorable road from Sikkim to Nepal being developed through Uttarey” by the State Roads & Bridges Department. The proposal has been received by the Department from the User Agency recently in the month of March, 2012 last which indicates that the proposed road from Sopakha to Chewabhanjyang via Jorbotay passes through the Khanchendzonga Biosphere Reserve and 3.95 kms in the Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary, West Sikkim.
The proposal requires vetting by the State Board for Wildlife which is presently in the process of reconstitution and its recommendation for further clearances of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife and the Supreme Court. Once the clearances are obtained, the process for diversion of forest lands for non-forestry purpose shall have to follow the procedural formalities under the Forest (Conservation), Act 1980. At all stages, the User Agency will have to justify the necessity for the construction of the road through the Sanctuary and the forests outside. However, it is to mention that the Forest Department does not keep any proposal pending with it. There is no bureaucratic red tapism in the Department and it processes all the proposals in time bound manner.
Gut Lepcha, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife)
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