Shadow Correspondent
JAMMU, FEB 13:
Raising slogans against the State government for giving shelter to the corrupt MLAs and Ministers involved in the encroachment of Forest land besides loot of green wealth, a strong contingent of Panther activists led by Mr. Yashpal Kundal State President Young Panthers and other leaders staged a furious protest demonstration against the Forest department outside Van Bhavan Jammu today.
Anguished over the hooliganism unleashed by the Forest department in tehsil Majalta over a week ago, Mr. Yashpal Kundal divulged that forest teams along with heavy contingent of police and forest protection force entered and raided the premises of the saw mill owners in several villages of tehsil Majalta which led to public chaos and commotion. He divulged that the forest teams confiscated machinery and tools from the saw mills without any notice and without assigning reasons to the respective owners despite the fact that they were in possession of requisite documents besides stay orders from the court.
He shockingly informed that village Manwal was grief stricken when one Thakur Dass, a local saw mill owner tragically collapsed and died after the raid by the forest department and dubbed it no less than a murder.
The public staged protests in outrage and resented the action as politically motivated in view of local BJP MLA of Ramnagar having made frivolous complains against saw mill owners for vested interests, Kundal maintained.
Demanding legal action against the aforesaid offenders without any further delay, Mr. Kundal cautioned the Forest department to stop turning blind eye over the vices committed by the MLAs and the Ministers as they were not above the law, failing which, the Panthers Party shall resort to severe agitational course.
He said that any harassment and oppression of the poor would be vehemently opposed and fought tooth and nail by the party.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Sdr. Paramjeet Marshall, Khajoor Singh, Gagan Pratap, Parshotam Parihar, Nirmal Kishore, Mohinder Singh, Raj Kumar, Rajesh Gondhi, Udheyveer, Vishav Singh besides others.
