Forest Deptt seals saw mill, furniture mart
| Date :21-Sep-2020 |
Forest officials confiscating illegal logs.
Staff Reporter ;
RAIPUR,
Forest Department of Chhattisgarh has sealed one saw mill and one furniture mart and confiscated 23 square metres of illegal wood worth Rs 8 lakh in the past one week in Raigarh Forest Division. The Department is conducting a drive control forest crimes on the direction of Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar since September 14.
According to the reports, Sanjay Saw Mill on Moudhapara Road and Furniture & Timber Raigarh have been sealed. On the guidance of Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Rakesh Chaturvedi, a team led by Divisional Forest Officer Manoj Pandey is carrying out the action. The team found unauthorised operation of saw mill as well as recovered illegal wood logs, following which the action was taken. In the same line, the team found an illegal saw trolley running at the Sanjay Saw Mill by mill owner. Notably, the mill only had permission to operate saw machine, but it was also running saw trolley. Hence, the officials sealed the power saw machine and trolley at the mill.
The mill owner was using a 15Hp motor to run the saw trolley, which is unlawful. The owner had permission as a trader and not as a manufacturer. Likewise, the personal hammer at the Sanjay Saw Mill was registered for the year 2016, but the mill owner was running it till date without renewal of registration. Thus, the forest officials have requested Power Company to disconnect the power line to the mill. In examination of Saw Mill’s documents, officials discovered that the mill was procuring forest produced wood logs from RK Mart & Timber.
Following which the team also raided the RK Mart & Timber at Chhatamuda, where the team found 153 pieces of Saal wood logs and 11 pieces of Bija wood logs stored illegally. All the logs were confiscated by the forest department. The actions were taken by Forester Leela Patel, Forest Range Officer Rajesh Mishra, Deenbandhu Pradhan and Goverdhan Rathod.