Hyderabad: Chief Secretary S.P. Singh on Monday directed officials to identify unutilised state land in all the districts and create a land bank so that the state government can utilise them for compensatory afforestation.
He said several development projects in the state that require diversion of forest lands are being held up for want of suitable non-forest compensatory afforestation lands.
Mr Singh on Monday held the second meeting of high-level committee in the Secretariat to coordinate inter-departmental issues of clearances of proposals under Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. He said certain projects for which stage-1 approvals have been given earlier were also pending compliance for want of handing over of required CA lands.
Mr Singh asked collectors of all districts to identify government wastelands with survey number-wise details and ensure joint inspection by revenue, forest, survey and settlement, land acquisition officials. The exercise should be taken up immediately, Mr Singh said.
