Block Congress President Ranjan Palit released within 24 hours of arrest; he was nabbed for alleged involvement in wood smuggling 

Late last night at about 1:30 AM two trucks loaded with teak wood (Shegun) passed Lailapur Police out post and reached Dholai. Reacting to a tip-off in-charge of Rangirkhari police outpost and DSP Silchar Police station launched an operation. Around 2:00 AM they caught both the trucks along with a few individuals involved in the case of illegal smuggling of forest woods.

As per sources, Narshigpur block congress president, Ranjan Palit signed at Lailapur Police outpost and was escorting the the two trucks. “When we nabbed the trucks, Ranjan Palit’s car was right in front. That is how we understood his connection and then later back tracked to find that he signed the gate pass too,” says a senior official of the forest department.

Forest and Environment Minister, Parimal Shuklabaidya also took the opportunity to take a jibe at the Congress party. He said, “There is a nexus which illegally smuggle woods from our forests, this nexuses include influential party cadres and active politicians of Congress. In yesterday’s case itself there are more involved.”

The minister adds, “This has been going on since a very long time, we have just taken over 2 years back and so far we have nabbed about 400 such trucks of woods which were getting illegally smuggled from the forests of Assam.” As a part of the process, the confiscated wood gets officially auctioned under the supervision of the forest department.

Shuklabaidya, recognised the efforts of local citizens, who according to him play a vital role in such operation, “There is a process in place, while we give all the credit to the forest officers and Police officials but a lot of credit goes to the local residents. The process starts with them, they give us the tip-off on the basis of which we launch the entire operation,” he says.

The minister is of the opinion that irrespective of efforts put by the administration the illegal smuggling of woods exist, “People think we do not take adequate actions and that is why this happen. We need to understand forest is a wide spread area and these rackets have been in action for a very long time now, so, this cleanup will take time and we are happy with the progress,” he asserts.

On the other hand the Congress party workers accused Parimal Shuklabaidya of abuse of power. They have been demonstrating throughout the day in front of Silchar Sadar Police station and at about 7:00 PM he was spotted walking out of the Police station with garland around his shoulder. It was scenes of celebration, hugs and slogans.