DJ Venkatesh
Diglipur, Jan 19: Settlers Offspring welfare organization (SOWO) on Monday met and submitted a memorandum to Shri Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Environment, Forests & Climate Change in which they demanded to stop infiltration in these Islands.
Members of SOWO mentioned that Andaman is having a fragile ecology and since last few years indiscriminate cutting of forest though-out the Andaman particularly in Diglipur has been witnessed..
“People who are indulged in large scale deforestation are non-settlers and may be Bangladeshi nationals,” the members of SOWO added.
SOWO also demanded that CBI enquiry should be initiated against the large scale and well planned encroachments in Andaman.
SOWO demanded to implementation of Inner Line Permit immediately.
The member of SOWO further mentioned that under the settlers scheme the settlers were promised to allot 5 acres of paddy land and 5 acres of hilly land but the occupancy right over the hilly land not yet been given to the land owners. They also demanded to increase the free royalty of wood and ease the Sea sand extraction process.
