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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered the transfer of a forest officer for raiding athlete Swapna Burman’s house. In a press conference in Nabanna on Thursday, Banerjee hit out at the forest department for raiding Swapna’s house and wondered who gave the permission for the raid.
Image Courtesy Zee News
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has ordered the transfer of a forest officer for raiding athlete Swapna Burman’s house. In a press conference in Nabanna on Thursday, Banerjee hit out at the forest department for raiding Swapna’s house and wondered who gave the permission for the raid.
She informed the reporters that she has ordered the transfer of the officer who led the raid. Banerjee said that she got to know about this incident from media and called up Swapna and assured her that the issue will be solved.
Sanjoy Dutta, the ranger of Belakoba and the head of forest task force in North Bengal, had conducted the raid at Burman’s residence in Jalpaiguri following a tip off that illegal timber has been purchased and was being used for her new house. A huge amount of timber, allegedly illegal, was found there.
Swapna and the forest staffs got into heated exchange. She admitted that she bought the timber at much cheaper rates though she claimed she didn’t know that this timber is illegal.
She could not produce proper documents for the said timber purchase. The video clip of the conversation recorded by the forest staff has widely shared on social media. The forest range officers served her with 30 days notice for purchasing illegal timber.
Swapna an Asian games gold medalist is also an Arjun awardee while Sanjoy Dutta is well known for his ‘Dabang’ avatar as he has successfully conducted several raids.
He drew appreciation from several wildlife agencies including Wildlife Crime Control bureau and has been rewarded by the Chief Minister herself.
But the transfer of the forest ranger has triggered furore among forest department.
Some forest officers and staffers told Zee media on the condition of anonymity that the open criticism and transfer will break the moral of forest officers as Dutta was just doing his job.
Swapna was served with a notice and the issue could be settled amicably if Swapna is innocent. Some apprehend that this is because of the Rajvangshi vote that the CM took such stern action. Dutta’s transfer order is expected
News Credit Zee News