Accreditation of FCCOs will help in speeding up development: Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhu

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu while presiding over a meeting of senior officers of the forest department on Tuesday directed to remove all the impediments of FCA and FRA cases in the flagship programmes of the State Government so that work on ambitious projects could be started at the earliest.

He said that to speed up the process of clearances in the cases of FCA and FRA, the State Government have decided to provide handholding to the user agencies through Forest Clearance Consultant Organization (FCCO). He said that Forest Department would embark upon the process of handholding agencies available in the shortest possible time by leveraging an association with the Quality Council of India (QCI) for seeking early clearances under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for the diversion of forest land to non-forestry purposes.

He said that the expert agencies can advise the user agencies in the preparation and submission of proposals seeking forest clearance from the Government of India. Appreciating the efforts of the Forest Department, the Chief Minister said that the accreditation of FCCOs will help in speeding up development in the State by expediting the FCA approval process.

The Chief Minister said that meeting with the Union Minister for Forests, Environment and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav at New Delhi was fruitful and he has assured to provide full cooperation to the State Government.

Industries Minister, Harshwardhan Chauhan, Education Minister, Rohit Thakur, Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Sunder Singh Thakur, Principal Secretary Forests, Onkar Chand Sharma, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Bharat Khera, Principal Secretary Transport, RD Nazeem, Principal Secretary Tourism, Devesh Kumar, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of Forest Force VK Tiwari and other senior officers attended the meeting.

( With inputs from ANI )