PESHAWAR, July 4: The Youth Welfare Society for the Protection of Forests, Upper Dir, on Friday asked the NWFP government to take action against the local district revenue officer for allegedly illegally releasing royalty to forest contractors.

In a press release issued here, office-bearers of the society alleged that the official had deprived the forest owners of their rights by releasing the royalty to the tune of over Rs5 million to the contractors.

They said the government had to recover about Rs190 million from the contractors in light of the inquiry reports submitted by sessions judges Ziauddin Khattak and Hayat Ali Shah in 1997 and 2000, respectively.

They said the inquiries conducted on the orders of the provincial government had pronounced that the payment of royalty to the contractors was illegal.

They regretted that despite the directives of the provincial government to the district administration to pay royalty to the owners, the official released it to the contractors, which was illegal, and he should be held accountable for that.