Kathmandu: The Ministry of Forests and Environment and its administrators have finally succeeded in bringing the President Chure Terai-Madhes Conservation Development Committee into the process of dissolution.

According to employees and former officials working in the committee, the 'conspiracy and plot' to dissolve the committee by changing its structure and bringing it within the ministry has been going on for a long time.

According to information received by Naturekhabar.com, it has been revealed that the Ministry of Forests and its administration have been doing homework to dissolve the committee for a long time. For the past two years, the ministry has been extensively interfering in the work of the committee. It seems that a group working in the ministry has worked hard in the past to confirm that the committee did not and could not work by stopping its work, showing uncooperation, showing selfish behavior and giving false briefings to the political leadership.

'The forest administrators have been planning to dissolve the committee for a long time. The administrators worked hard in the past to confirm that the committee could not and could not work by paralyzing the committee. This is the result of that,” said a former official of the committee, “The main reason for the dissolution of the committee is the budget it runs and the stones, gravel and sand of the Chure. Everyone’s eyes are on it.”

Therefore, Nature News has received many examples of the ministry and some of its administrators having been uncooperative for a long time in the work of the committee formed for the conservation and management of the Chure, mobilizing employees and managing funds.

Not only this, but factual examples of the ministry not cooperating with the committee even when some international organizations and donor agencies wanted to provide financial assistance have been received. There are also examples of projects worth billions of rupees that were going to be submitted to the Chure committee being withdrawn due to the ministry’s non-cooperation.

The Ministry of Forests and its administration were angry ever since the authority to manage financial resources related to the Chure went to the committee. “The ministry had been continuously uncooperative since before. "There were problems of not allowing work, arbitrarily delegating employees and not coordinating," said a forest officer who has worked in the Chure Committee for a long time. "Since the formation order established the committee as an autonomous body, the ministry's administration has been lenient towards the committee. After the committee was formed, the budget for the Chure Conservation Program also went to the committee."

He recounted the experience of an administrator from the ministry last year, in an institutional meeting with donor agencies at an international forum, expressing his disapproval of the Chure Committee and the donor agencies' instigation. The officer said, "If someone asks us to plant trees or carry out conservation work through the Chure Committee, they directly instigate the donor agencies by saying no."

Another retired senior officer has the experience that the work of creating a 'pendulum' by dissociating the Chure Committee is being done by the leadership of the forest administration. He says, "This whole fight is for money. The ministry and some officials there want to keep the money spent through the Chure Committee under their control. This problem has arisen because the committee has not received funds for the people, institutions and objectives it wants.’

The committee has already spent about 17 billion rupees in the ten years since its establishment. The committee is working on a 20-year master plan and a five-year strategy for the conservation of Chure.

The committee formation order has made a provision that the Government of Nepal will send employees of various services through the Ministry of Forest and Environment at the request of the committee, and the committee itself will handle the deployment of the employees sent in this way.

But the ministry has been completely interfering in this work in recent years. Contrary to the existing arrangement, Forest and Environment Secretary Dr. Deepak Kumar Kharal is directly transferring and returning employees of field unit offices under the committee. Dr. Kharal’s style has made the committee ineffective, with Chure employees more accountable to the Forest Secretary than to the committee.

After the ministry repeatedly interfered in the deployment of employees, the Chure committee made a formal decision on 2081 August 8 and also made a written request to the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration. Although the General has directed the Ministry of Forests to work as per the formation order, the Ministry is still mobilizing employees without informing the committee.

Similarly, the Ministry administration is ignoring the committee's demand for necessary expert employees. The Joint Secretary of the Government of Nepal Forest Service should be assigned as the member-secretary of the committee with secretary-level service facilities. But the Ministry has been completely uncooperative with the committee for ten months by not sending anyone to that position. The administrative work of the committee has been stalled for ten months. An official from Chure says, "The ministry's design is working with a plan to fail the Chure Committee. And, the work of the ministry has probably never been as bad as it is now."

According to the official, the Ministry administration itself is understood to be uncooperative by not allowing the committee to work on various pretexts and repeatedly presenting arguments before the political leadership that the Chure Committee has not been able to work and that it is not necessary.

‘..and it has been brought to the point of being abolished’, he said, ‘It seems that the ulterior motive is to bring it under the ministry and to lure the forest minister by saying that you will be its chairman and to allow them to manipulate the resources there.’

Another retired forest officer says, ‘The forest administration has already planned to recommend the abolition of the committee and bring all financial resources under its control and control. Everyone in the ministry is involved in this.

Recently, a committee formed by a ministerial decision to prepare a technical report on the Chure Committee has prepared its report to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, including a 'plan to abolish the committee and bring it under the ministry'. The ministry is preparing to submit a technical report with recommendations to change the structure of the Chure Committee.

A committee was formed about a month ago under the coordination of Chief of the Administration Division Bhupal Baral on the initiative of Minister for Forest and Environment Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri and Forest Secretary Dr. Deepak Kumar Kharal. The committee's member secretary is Shobhakar Regmi, while the members are Joint Secretary Meghnath Kafle, Dr. Maheshwor Dhakal, Badri Raj Dhungana, and the then Joint Secretary Dr. Sindhu Dhungana. Some of the officials in the committee were broadly sympathetic to the Chure Committee from the beginning.

According to sources, Forest Minister Thakuri and Secretary Dr. Kharal have informally 'briefed' Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli about this. There is talk within the ministry that the ministry's technical committee prepared and submitted the report in a way that confused Prime Minister Oli.