Opposition asked government to seek time from the apex court to submit a new report instead of old one as concerns among people are growing.
VD Satheesan and Pinarayi Vijayan. (Twitter)
The Congress-led Opposition UDF in Kerala on Wednesday, 21 December, urged the state government to conduct a manual field survey — as opposed to the satellite survey — and submit a fresh report on the buffer zone issue in the Supreme Court.
It also asked the CPI(M)-led LDF government in the state to seek more time from the Supreme Court to submit the new report instead of the old one as concerns among the local people are growing over the demarcation of the buffer zone.
In June, the Supreme Court had directed that a buffer zone of 1 km should be maintained around forests and sanctuaries across the country. Challenging this, both the Centre and the Kerala government had filed review petitions in the apex court.
In the judgement passed on 3 June, the top court had directed states to conduct, within three months, a survey in areas declared as buffer zones as well as a satellite survey, if necessary, to provide accurate information.
“But, the survey was not conducted even though there was enough time after the judgement,” Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly VD Satheesan said.
Instead of fresh information, the state government is now providing to the apex court details from the survey conducted during the period 2020-21, he pointed out.
The LoP also expressed concerns over the reaction of the Supreme Court when the government goes to it with an old survey report, even after it suggested conducting a new survey.
“The new survey should have an accurate count of buildings falling within the buffer zone limit. The number of buildings such as houses, churches, government offices, hospitals and schools should be counted. It should be a survey report which is at least 90 percent correct,” Satheesan said.
Noting that the Supreme Court should be convinced by this report that densely populated and agricultural areas are falling within buffer zones, he said a manual survey was best for this.
“The manual survey should begin in January itself. Not just with the support of the Forest Department, but it should be done with the cooperation of the local bodies and the Revenue Department as well.”
The Congress’s criticism came a day after the Left government had announced its decision to publish the draft buffer zone map, which has already been sent to the Centre.
The decision was taken on Tuesday at a high-level meeting chaired by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, which discussed the buffer zone issue which is creating ripples across the state with the Catholic church spearheading the movement to exclude populated areas from it.
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