Shimla: Rajan Sushant today asked the state government to promulgate an ordinance to stop felling of fruit laden apple trees in the name of removing encroachments on government lands.
He also asked to convene an emergency session of state assembly to replace the ordinance. Sushant was Revenue Minister in BJP government in 2002 when the policy to regularise the encroachments was mooted.
Expressing his anguish over the manner in which fruit trees are being axed in the name of removing encroachments on
forest lands, Sushant said that the 2002 policy should be implemented to give relief to poor and orchardists who have encroached small chunks of land.
Accusing the Congress and BJP governments of adopting an indifferent attitude on the sensitive issue, he said the
Congress government came to power in 2003 while the BJP government came back to power in 2007 but none of the
government was serious about the issue.
"I lost the assembly elections in 2007 and BJP came to power but it did not pursue the unfinished agenda to regularise the encroachments and Congress which was back in power in 2012 also failed to safeguard the interests of orchardists.
The High Court ordered evictions from forest lands in April 2015 but the government remained a silent spectator for four months and did not file the revision petition in the High Court, he said and accused the government to sparing the big sharks who included senior leaders of Congress and BJP and targeting the small farmers
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