 "Raghubar Das")
Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today met Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and held discussions on a range of issues including severe crunch in the number of forest officials in the state.
"There is a lot of forest area in Jharkhand and we held discussions on it's proper management. We also discussed about the crunch in central staff which the state is facing. There is shortage of frontline staff which had been ignored for the last 14 years.
"We had detailed discussions on how it can be fulfilled. There were positive discussions on how to make forests better and how to take both development and management of forests together," Javadekar said.
Meanwhile, a Jharkhand government statement said that Das raised the topic of severe shortage of officials of Indian Forest Service in the state with the Union Minister.
The statement said that Javadekar assured that in the next couple of years, 7-8 such officials will be increased there.
Das said that in the naxal-affected areas, the utilisation of five 5 hectare of forest land, whose power has been given to state government, has just 14 activities included into it.
Das said that Javadekar assured of considering his government's proposal of including other activities in it in a positive manner.
On the issue of cutting down central assistance on tiger projects to states to 60%, Das said that the Union Minister will discuss the issue with the Union Finance Minister and will try to bring back the assistance to 100%.
Das had also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday when he invited him to the state to lay the foundation stone of a bridge in Sahebganj district. He had also met Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari.
