LAHORE, Nov 6: The Board of Revenue (BoR) is pushing the Punjab Forests Department in violation of the Forests Amendment Act 2010 to accept the district government's land in exchange for the forests department land, which was illegally allotted to agriculture graduates in Bhakkar a few months ago.

An official source told Dawn that BoR issued a letter to the Bhakkar district officer for revenue on October 21, asking him to give 1,000-acre land owned by the district government to the forests department in exchange for the 2,000 acres owned by the latter that was recently allotted to 80 agriculture graduates under the chief minister's land lease scheme in Bhakkar.

The source said the forests department owned more than 100,000 acres in Bhakkar district and the Punjab government allotted nearly 28,000 acres of this land to military officials in 2006 and 2007. He said that later the Bhakkar revenue department illegally took over forests department's 45,256 acres to allot it to graduates and landless farmers under the chief minister's scheme.

The official said the district revenue department allotted 2,050 of 45,256 acres of the forests department to the graduates a few months ago even after the BoR stopped the district officer for revenue from doing so.

He said the BoR wrote a letter to the revenue officer on October 21 when the Punjab Assembly passed the Forests Amendment Bill 2010, according to which no one could lease, sell or transfer the forests land. “This shows the government violated the amended forests act on the very first day of its approval from the assembly,” the official added.

Sargodha Division Commissioner Jawad Rafique Malik said though the Bhakkar revenue department offered the forests department 1,000 acres in exchange for the latter's 2,000 acres, the forests department could not get back its original land because that had been allotted to graduates. He said the BoR senior member had decided to swap the land with the forests department. “He, the senior BoR member, has taken this decision after getting a summary approved from the chief minister,” he added.