Upalokayukta Subash B. Adi on Friday took the Range Forest Officer of Sullia to task for not acting against revenue officials allegedly involved in changing land records from forest to agriculture land.
During a public hearing on complaints here on Friday, Mathew Joseph, a resident of Kerala, alleged that Forest Department officials had booked him for encroaching upon forest land and cultivating rubber plantation.
Mr. Joseph said that the rubber saplings were planted in the four-acre land he had purchased following auction by a cooperative society in Sullia. The forest department came there and brought down 800 rubber plants that were about six months old. “They did not issue any notice. They just brought down the plants. I am doomed because of this act as it involved hard earned money.”
The Range Forest Officer from Sullia said that the land was part of Bammalu Reserve Forest and it was a thickly wooded area. Land records had been changed to grant this portion of land in favour of Indira Prabhu, who had pledged the land before the society that auctioned it.
Mr. Adi asked whether any action had been taken against the official responsible for changing the land records of a forest land to an agricultural land. “When you can book a case against him, should you not take action against the person who has manipulated records?”
Questioning the way they had acted, he said, “Are you following the same procedure against persons encroaching upon huge extent of forest land in Puttur and Kodagu,” he said.
