MAPUSA
Accusing the government of colluding with builders, St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar on Thursday said a builder was issued permission to cut trees at Azossim despite the area being declared as private forest.
However, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that permission to fell trees was issued for survey no 8/1-D-1 in an area which was outside the demarcated private forest.
“The government is not giving permission to cut trees in private forests. But at times, some concession could be made for a common man,” Sawant said, while responding to the query raised by the St Andre MLA during the Question Hour.
But Borkar maintained that the department went out of its way to allow felling of trees from a private protest in Azossim.
“The person who was allowed to cut trees and that too in the private forest in Azossim was not a common man but a builder,” Borkar said.
Displaying pictures of an alleged grey patch surrounded by thick cover of trees all around in the House, the St Andre MLA said that a construction project has made way in the private forest and the government appears to be hand in glove with the builder.
“I will place these pictures and various other documents before the House,” he said and vowed to bring the expose to its logical end.
