District Forest Office, Saptari had spent Rs 3,75,000 for the plantation at Paramanandapur area near Balan River. Three assistant forest officers at District Forest Office Ramkrishna Yadav, Bishwonath Yadav and Ramdev Yadav were provided Rs 1,25,000 each for the purpose.[break]
However, now the locals say there is hardly any sign of plantation in the area. While many of the plants have already died, few that have survived are barely visible with tall bushes and grasses growing around them.
According to another local Bhagwati Prasad Chaudhari, the plantation was just a sham. “There intention was not to plant trees but pocket the amount provided to them. The plantation was done in a rush, without even caring whether the plants would survive,” he said. He added that the plantation was successful just on paper.
Not just the locals, even the officials at the Paramanandapur community forest expressed surprise over the matter. “How could the bosses who keep teaching us to plant and protect trees do that? Planting trees without first clearing the huge bushes makes no sense at all,” said a staff requesting anonymity. “Anyone with the least knowledge about plantation would not do such a thing,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shiva Narayan Yadav, acting chief officer at the district office, confirmed that Rs 3,75,000 was provided to the forest officers for planting trees.
While CDO Yadav was reluctant to discuss the misuse of fund, he also could not provide the account of remaining Rs 475,000 released for the program.
The district office was given a total budget of Rs 800,000 for plantation. Yadav tried to brush off the issue saying, “The rest of the money was spent on fuel and other miscellaneous expenses.”
The district office itself has yet to make public how it has spent Rs 1.81 million provided to it for the last fiscal year.
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