Addressing a presser held at party headquarter here, state vice-president Bhrugu Baxipatra said, ” The CAG report had exposed the state government’s failure in plantation activities and increasing the green cover. A party has been in power in the State for the last 22 years. However, the irregularities that have been reported in this period might have not been witnessed in any state.”
As many as 3,473 reports are pending for settlement from June 1984 to 2020. These includes 95 per cent pending reports in the last 22 years, the BJD leader said.
“The CAG has found the concentration of plantation activities in easily accessible areas like land along the pathways, leaving the degraded patches in the middle of dense forest unplanted in the State,” Baxipatra said.
“The BJP MPs from Odisha will raise the issue in the parliament. The party will also alert the Union Finance Minister in this regard,” said Baxipatra.
Notably, the CAG came down heavily on the State government indicating that plantation undertaken by the State did not result in improvement of degraded forest area and increase in forest cover to its full potential.
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