Anti-corruption & Crime Investigation Front (ACIF) has demanded stern action against Gossaigaon DFO Matilal Basumatary and the ranger of Kachugaon central range, Haruna Kanto Brahma.
The organization has sought action against the forest officials alleging their nexus with timber smugglers and involvement in illegally selling many seized sal logs.
ACIF has sought Assam Chief Minister Sarbanada Sonowal, BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary and deputy BTC chief Kampa Borgoyari to take stern action against forest officials.
Talking to reporters, Subash Narzary, the general secretary of district ACIF said, “We have been working against corruption, crime, injustice, drugs smugglers and harassment of women.”
Narzary alleged, “Gossaigaon Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Matilal Basumatary and Haruna Kanto Brahma, the ranger of Kachugaon central range, have been involved in selling of seized sal logs.”
“They sell the seized logs by making legal papers through mutual understanding with contractors and timber smugglers,” he said.
“Many valuable sal logs have been sold at Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Dhubri districts and West Bengal,” the ACIF leader claimed.
Subash Narzary also said the DFO and the ranger have allegedly been using labourers to cut down the valuable sal logs at Kachugaon’s dense jungle and later the labourers load those logs in trucks.
The truck loads of sal logs are brought by them to the range office in Kokrajhar.
Narzary said, “Our anti-corruption team has already captured many illegal timber trucks and we have sufficient evidence of sal logs being illegally supplied from Kachugaon office.”
“So, we demand Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonawal, BTC chief Hagrama Mohilary and deputy chief Kampa Borgoyari to take stern action against such corruptions,” he said.
Kishor Brahma, a forest employee of Kachugaon central forest range said, “We have shortage of staff to cover all the areas under Kachugaon forest.”
