Mandal has recently written a letter to the field director of the reserve, L.G. Lepcha, and instructed him to step up vigil on how the funds are being spent.

The principal chief conservator had visited the reserve in end-May on the basis of a complaint lodged by a section of forest employees about the wastage of money.

In his letter, Mandal has objected to the way money has been spent on the four anti-poaching camps set up in BTR (West). Each of them cost more than Rs 5 lakh, the letter points out, though similar camps were constructed in Jaldapara I for only Rs 25,000.

Mandal has also objected to the way Rajeev Sharma, divisional field director (West), distributed ration among the on-duty staff, which is illegal.

The letter also points out unnecessary spending on the construction of Hatipota Rest House as well as the lack of transparency in the digging of a pond in Nimati West beat, where the beat officer concerned was left in the dark about the project.

When asked, Sharma said he has already defended himself to his superiors.

'Green' lawyers bid to save ponds in Agra

The Pioneer,Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Vijay Upadhyay | Agra

lawyers in Agra began a "Pond yatra" on Tuesday against Agra administration's failure in implementing UP High Court' order to demolish hundreds of residential and commercial complexes built on community ponds in the district.

The green lawyers will visit the 110 filled-up community ponds in Agra as the July 13 deadline set by the High Court comes near. Former president, Uttar Pradesh Bar Council, Praveen Kumar Singh, told the Pioneer that on DK Joshi's request, member, Supreme Court's Monitoring Committee on Environment , the lawyers have decided to monitor the work of Agra administration.

"We have constituted a committee of a dozen lawyers from different district bar councils to conduct on-site verification of encroachments on all the ponds listed in the High Court. After that we well prepare a report and submit it before the HC on July 13."

Singh said after conducting the initial verification of the ponds, it has been found that the demolition claims made by the administration were completely baseless. The administration's claims to have completely freed the ponds of encroachments were merely a ploy to mislead the court, he said, adding encroached ponds have also been filmed to substantiate our case.

Joshi, the petitioner, said instead of clearing the ponds , the administration was actively encroaching them as was clear from the committee's findings in Nehru Nagar.

He said a large pond was being filled up with the garbage by the Municipal Corporation and now, the Agra Development Authority was building a boundary wall to cover up this community pond completely and probably sell it.

Similarly, he said, the ponds where the administration had recently conducted an alleged demolition drive were still encroached and so far, no pond out of the 110 mentioned in PIL were found to have been "restored and redeemed" as directed by the High Court.