Chandigarh: Punjab Forest, Wildlife and Labor Very Singh Gilzian on Tuesday launched a web portal for wood-based wood industries and ‘even forest’ mobile applications to monitor plantation work and protection carried out by the department in the field.
Gilzian said that the web portal has been developed to improve the timber industry in the state and to simplify the registration and licensing process.
The industry will get facilities to obtain registration and licensing within the time limit specified by full transparency.
The Minister of Forest said that this step will provide income around Rs 10 to 15 crores and it will also produce employment for more than 10,000 workers directly and for 25,000 indirectly.
Likewise, timber traders will get income in GST form.
He added that Punjab regulations from Sawmills, Veneer and Prowwood Industries rules, 2006 were enforced in the state to regulate the timber-based industry.
However, according to the guideline issued by the Indian government in 2016, a type of agroforestry such as populus, deck, toot, silver oak etc.
Will be asked to get a license and only need to get registration from the Ministry of Forestry.
In addition, the formation of timber-based industries using types of wood containers will have a significant impact on agro-forestry growth of farmers, increasing in areas under the forest and also increasing farmers’ income.
As per the rules approved by the state government in 2018, Rs 10 per foot as green costs will be charged from industrialists because they use wood, which has been used to plant new trees and for industrialist welfare.
He said that a survey was conducted by the Punjab government from the Indian Institute of Forest, Dehradun who revealed that the forest area had increased from 32 lakh metric tons to 37 lakh metric tons of cubic in the state.
He said that in the past 5 years, licenses were not issued for the timber-based industry, but now the forest protection department and wildlife, Punjab has provided facilities for timber-based industry registration located at a distance of more than 10.
Km from forest blocks, to improve the wood industry in the state and provide employment opportunities.
Along with this, traders will get a reasonable price for wood.
He said that the Ministry of Forestry website has been fully modernized and updated so that all department services will be available online to people through one portal.
Gilzian said that the application forest Mobile was launched to monitor plantation work and protection in the field by forest and wildlife conservation officials.
He said that the officers and staff staff would update photographs of plantations, the progress of the daily plantation, and details of plantation sites in the application.