Daijiworld Media Network - Puttur (SP)

Puttur, Feb 26: At its meetings held at Puttur and Udupi, the ministerial sub-committee formed to review recommendations contained in Dr Kasturirangan report, has decided to hold meetings in various villages which will be affected by Kasturirangan report within the next 15 days. These meetings will be held under the aegis of forest and revenue departments besides the deputy commissioner and zilla panchayat chief executive officers of the districts concerned.

45 villages in three taluks of Dakshina Kannada districts and 21 in Udupi districts will be covered by this report. Forest minister, B Ramanath Rai, Vinay Kumar Sorake, and additional secretary in environment and ecology, Madan Gopal, spoke here about these meetings.

Rai said that the state has to submit its report after marking the borders of villages and conducting survey, to the central government before April 15. The speakers added that the state can only send recommendations.

Ramanath clarified that the implementation of the said report pertains to the department of environment in the central government. As this department faces shortage of staff, forest department is extending support, he clarified.

The leaders said that organizing of meetings at such a short notice will create problems as they do not have full information about the report. They explained that they would be at a loss if the people raise questions. They wanted the officials to attend village meetings and provide full information and clarifications.

At the meeting held here, MLAs, Angara and Shakuntala Shetty, and Sunil Kumar and Halady Srinivas Shetty in Udupi urged the government to give importance to the opinions of the these villagers when sending recommendations.