Shimla, July 19 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh government has decided to move Supreme Court against the high court order to cut down fruit-laden apple trees on encroached forest lands in the state, horticulture and revenue minister Jagat Singh Negi said on Saturday.
The state government will file a special leave petition in the top court next week and seek a stay on the HC order, Negi told PTI.
According to Kuldeep Rathore, the Congress MLA from Theog assembly constituency in the apple belt, a meeting was held Shimla to discuss the matter on Friday night, where it was widely agreed up on that the felling of apple trees nearing harvest was inappropriate and concrete steps must be taken to prevent it.
The forest department has been clearing off apple trees and orchards raised on encroached forest lands in the state following a high court order issued on July 8.
Expressing concern over the re-emergence of encroachments on forest lands where they were removed from earlier, the high court had directed the forest department to conduct evictions, cut down the orchards and plant forest species instead.
The decision was criticised from several quarters, including by political leaders and farmers' associations.
Seb Utpadak Sangh and Himachal Kisan Sabha, the organisations spearheading the agitation against the felling of apple trees, have announced a 'gherao' of the state Secretariat on July 29.
Meanwhile, a deputation of Seb Utpadak Sangh met the state Education Minister Rohit Thakur on Saturday and sought his intervention in halting the tree-felling.
The Seb Utpadak Sangh representatives from Kotkhai, Jubbal, Rohru and Chohara blocks on Saturday submitted a memorandum to Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi demanding the immediate halting of tree-felling, strict implementation of Forest Rights Act (FRA), allotment of five Bighas of land to the poor and landless farmers, and the amendment of Forest Conservation Act (FCA), 1980, to facilitate land allotment to disaster-hit people.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had also said on Thursday that cutting of fruit-laden trees was not appropriate and the government was not in favour of it.
Earlier, Himachal Pradesh Education Minister Rohit Thakur had expressed anguish over the uprooting of apple trees, stating that the interests of small and marginal farmers with less than five Bighas of land should be protected.