CM Assures To Settle Claims of Forest Dwellers
Mollemkar’s and Goemkar’s are strong enough to save Mollem
Panaji: February 5, 2021
Chief Minister, Dr Pramod Sawant has assured to resolve the conflict between forest officials and forest dwellers by expediting the process settling claims under Forest Rights Act.
Speaking after inaugurating the 4th Bird Festival, the Chief Minister said a meeting of the Forest Department was called yesterday and directions have been issued for expediting the process.
“The conflict between dwellers and the forest officials and people has to end. The conflict is basically because of their rights over land or cultivation. My government wants to resolve that issue at the earliest,” CM stated. Government will soon appoint surveyors and the cases will be cleared expeditiously, he added.
The Chief Minister further assured that his government is more concerned than anybody else on saving Mollem.
“We have inaugurated the bio-diversity park today as well as hosting the Bird Festival in Mollem, which is a clear example to show how much we love our bio-diversity and forests. I want to tell everyone that, we are more concerned about Mollem and Goa. Mollemkar and Goemkars are strong enough to save Mollem,” he said.
Dr Sawant further informed that 180 youth have been trained as Nature guides and 35 as Vanamitras to identify and harvest around 150 medicinal plants available in Goan forests.
“Goa is a tourist State and lakhs of tourists descend every year. We want the tourists to also see the natural beauty of our bio-diversity parks, waterfalls, wildlife sanctuaries. For this, we will ensure a tie-up between the Tourism Department and the Forest Department, which will help in creating employment and income for the locals here,” he stated.
PWD Minister, Deepak Pauskar; PCCF Subash Chandra; CCF Santosh Kumar and other officials of Forest department were present for the function.
Goa Forest Department is celebrating 4th Bird Festival of Goa, 2021 at Mollem, Dharbandora from February 5-7, 2021. Around 100 delegates from Goa and different states are participating in this event.
Guided bird tours, lectures by eminent ornithologists, cultural programmes and various other attractive events will be part of this grand event.
Further as part of pre-festival activity an awareness vehicle rally was organized from Quepem Municipality to Mollem to spread the message of conservation.
Earlier, Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant inaugurating Biodiversity Park at Mollem today maintained that the Government along with support of local have enough potential to save the Mollem Village. Any project coming in Mollem will definetly help the development of village including generating more and more employment for locals, he added.
We need to promote all our wild life sanctuaries at national and international level and for that apart from showcasing our natural resources, we also need to take care making available basic infrastructural facilities without disturbing the nature.
Congratulating the entire officials who were directly and indirectly involved for initiating the Biodiversity Park project and dedicating the same to the public, the Chief Minister said that, this park apart from having different various components such as preservation of biodiversity, medicinal plant, butterfly garden etc., will also attract tourists including nature lover from around the world. He also appreciated the setting up the nature friendly wooden information centre, cafeteria, and stall for local fro promoting their items, tracking space etc., in the park he added.
Government is very serious to preserve all the wild life sanctuaries such as Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary, Mollem, Western Ghat etc which are there in Goa he concluded.
PWD Minister Shri Deepak Prabhu Pauskar said that the Government is providing all the required support for developmental projects which are coming in Mollem village. He said, the Biodiversity park, Mollem abounds with natural beauty in the form of distinct flora will definitely attract the tourist and will generate local employment.
DI/ INF /SK /AXP/GJG /2021/1032