Arunachal Pradesh to enact special law to control hill earth cutting

ITANAGAR: The Arunachal government has decided to enact a special law to control and regulate cutting of hill earth and to prevent damage to ecologically sensitive sites to check the practice by private individuals causing damage to roads.

Chief Secretary Ramesh Negi constituted a committee to check 'hill cutting' and to regulate permission for such acts by legislating a special law, a state official said.

The committee to be headed by Law and Judicial secretary comprises Development and Land Management directors, ICC DC, Director Statistical and Planning, Conservator of Forest as members and Town Planning Director as Member Secretary.

The proposed law shall provide stringent punishment for hill cutting without permission and the committee would also study the provisions of the Assam Hill Land and Ecological sites (Protection and Management) Act, 2006 for reference.

Negi further directed the PWD Commissioner to engage IIT Guwahati or NIIT Yupia to assess the quality of the work done by contractors in the Itanagar-Holongi National Highway and to suggest remedial measures for effective drainage, land stabilization and erosion.

It has been observed that the present national norms for drainage, gradient and land stabilization measures were not adequate in North-Eastern states where rainfall, flood, landslide are rampant and therefore fresh norms have to be worked out, the official said.

It is expected that the report of the assessment would be submitted to the government within two months' time so that follow-up measures could be implemented after the rainy season, it added.