Pinarayi Vijayan
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the ground survey to assess areas impacted by the buffer zones surrounding forests will be conducted soon. Future constructions will also be marked in the survey, the CM said in a press conference here.
CM assured that residential areas will not be part of the buffer zone. He agreed that there are legitimate complaints about the aerial survey. "We are trying to resolve it. The ground survey will address all the concerns. The Supreme Court will be informed about buildings and farm land in the area. The final report is not ready yet," he said.
He targeted the Opposition for ‘misleading people’. He said it was Congress’ Jairam Ramesh who pushed for buffer zones when the latter was union environment minister.
"It was the UPA government that decided a 10 km-long buffer zone was required for forests. Oommen Chandy government extended it to 12 km. Though they decided to exclude residential areas, they did not submit any data on this to the union government. Later, the LDF government changed the 0-12 km buffer zone to 0-1 km," he said.
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