Opposition BJP today staged a walk out in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly for the third day today after Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh blamed the previous NDA government for marking "green trees" for felling as he gave a clean chit to state forest minister Thakur Singh Bharmauri.
Making a suo moto statement in the House on illicit tree felling in Almi beat of Chamba forest division after Question Hour, the Chief Minister said an inquiry report had revealed that "wrong marking of green trees" for felling was a big scandal carried out during the BJP government.
Launching an offensive, Singh blamed the previous BJP government for wrongly marking green trees before the Assembly elections in December 2012 in the Chamba forest, and said action would be taken against the culprits.
Earlier, BJP members had alleged Bharmouri, who hails from Chamba, was responsible for felling of green trees and sought his resignation.
"The lot was handed over to the Forest Corporation on December 15, 2012 just before few days of the change of the government in state... The previous BJP government was responsibility for this grave irregularity," Singh said, following which BJP members staged a walk out.
"The wrong marking of green trees for felling was a big scandal in previous BJP regime. Out of 1,500 trees, marked by the forest officials, only 36 were dry trees. The government will take action against people on whose instance the green trees were marked during the BJP regime," he said while giving a clean chit to Bharmauri saying that he was nowhere at fault.
Leader of Opposition Prem Kumar Dhumal said Singh was trying to put the blame on BJP for "illicit felling" done in Congress regime. He said the question was of felling of unmarked trees, which numbered over 1400.
