Forest and Climate Change, Housing and Environment, Transport and Law-Legislative Minister Mr. Mohammad Akbar passed by voice vote in the Vidhan Sabha today the demands for grant of Rs. 2 thousand 959 crore related to his departments for the financial year 2022-23. Of these, Rs 459 crore 95 lakh for justice administration and election, Rs 105 crore 8 lakh for transport department, Rs 579 crore 15 lakh for housing and environment department and Rs 01 thousand 814 crore 91 lakh for forest and climate change department. Contains amount. { “slotId”: “4522015006”, “unitType”: “in-feed”, “pubId”: “pub-9441652835309653”, “layout_key”: “-g7+15-5o-ea+1bn” } Replying to the discussion on demands for grants presented by his departments in the Vidhan Sabha today, Forest and Climate Change Minister Shri Akbar said that 44.24 percent of the geographical area of Chhattisgarh is covered by forests. According to the report of the Indian Forest Conservation Institute for the year 2021, Chhattisgarh state is at the third place in the country in terms of forest cover. It has mainly wet and dry Sal and Saugon species, as well as dry mixed forests and bamboo forests. Our government in the state is not only making efforts to save the environment but also to improve the standard of living of the tribals and forest dwellers of the state. Minister Shri Akbar said that special emphasis has been laid on conservation, promotion and development of forests in the state. Along with this, full care has been taken for the social and economic security of the local forest dwellers and for increasing their means of income. In the year 2018-19 in the state, only 07 forest produce was purchased by the then government at the support price fixed by the Government of India. At present, arrangements have been made by the state government to purchase 65 minor forest produce at minimum support price. As a result, even during the Kovid period, Chhattisgarh has set a record by purchasing 77 percent of the minor forest produce of the entire country at the minimum support price. So far, forest produce worth Rs 158 crore has been collected in the state under the year 2020-21. As a result, Chhattisgarh has also been awarded with 11 different national awards. Responding to the discussion, Minister Shri Akbar said that necessary provision has been made under the Transport Department in the state for prevention of illegal transport and control of road accidents and smooth traffic arrangements etc. Under the “Tunhar Sarkar Tuhar Dwar” program run by the Transport Department in the public interest, the benefits of 22 services related to smart card based driving license and registration certificate of vehicles are being delivered to the applicants sitting at home. Significantly, in the year 2021-22 by the Transport Department, revenue of more than Rs 955 crore has been earned so far. He informed that adequate provision has been kept by the State Government for the rapid development of Nava Raipur Atal Nagar as per the expectations of the people. Replying to the discussion, Minister Shri Akbar said that the State Government is committed to develop and implement hi-tech and better management for improving the quality of environment in the State. Online Emission Monitoring System has been established in all the 17 types of air polluting nature industries to keep 24X7 monitoring of chimney emissions in the state. Similarly, under the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Program, work is being done to measure the ambient air quality at 18 sites (Raipur-6, Bhilai-4, Korba-4, Bilaspur-1 and Raigarh-3). Similarly, action is being taken to expand the organizational structure of the Board to effectively implement the Acts and Rules of Environment Protection. Like this:Like Loading… Continue Reading