Una: Now, get online permits to transport forest produce through govt portal

Our Correspondent

Una, April 11

The Una Forest Division has started issuing online permits for transporting forest produce within and outside the state, making the entire system transparent, paperless, quick and accountable.

189 permits issued in 15 days

• The contractors have the ease of working from their homes and do not need to make unnecessary trips to the Forest offices. It reduces the rush of people at the offices, minimises paper work and increases the efficiency of the staff besides streamlining the working of various processes.
• The DFO said the first entry into the portal was made by the Forest Division on March 27 and during the last 15 days, 189 permits have been issued online and permit fee amounting to Rs 7,850 has been deposited to the government coffers

Divisional Forest Officer Susheel Rana said the new system has been implemented through the National Transit Pass System (NTPS) portal of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. He said forest produce such as timber, coal, rosin, catechin and fuel wood had to be transported from the source to a location of sales, which could be within or outside the state.

Rana said in order to issue the transportation permit, the contractor had to proceed manually, submitting details of the produce, source, destination, transportation mode, vehicle number and driver’s license number, which had to be verified by forest field staff and the Forest Range Officer before being put up for grant of permit by the DFO, adding that the process took a long time.

Now, the DFO said the contractors had been issued usernames and passwords for the NTPS App and details of the forest produce and mode of transportation were uploaded by them in the form of text, photographs or scanned documents, which were verified by the forest field staff and the Range Officer on the portal, which has space for their remarks and recommendations. When the application was processed, the DFO could view the application and issue or deny the permit with proper remarks. He said the process was time bound for every employee, who would be answerable for the delay, if any in processing the digital file.

Rana said the permit was shared at every forest checkpost in the country and at each checkpost that the forest produce enters or leaves, the information can be cross-checked. He said the system also automatically took care of depositing the permit fee of Rs 500 per permit into the proper account head of the department, easing the work load on the ministerial staff.

The DFO said the contractors had the ease of working from their homes and do not need to make unnecessary trips to the Forest offices. It reduced the rush of people at the offices, minimised paper work and increased the efficiency of the staff besides streamlined the working of various processes. He added that the first entry into the portal was made by the Forest Division on March 27 and during the last 15 days, 189 permits had been issued online and permit fee amounting to Rs 7,850 had been deposited in the government coffers.

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