MADHYA PRADESH TRANSIT (FOREST PRODUCE) RULES, 2022

 

PREAMBLE

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 76 read with Section 41 and 42 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (XVI of 1927), Madhya Pradesh Transit (Forest Produce) Rules 2000 were notified by the State Government for transit of forest produce. Government of India is developing National Transit Pass System for Pan-India (inter-state and intra-state) transit of timber, bamboo and other forest produce. To expedite issuance of transit permits for bamboo and agro-forestry, there is a need to replace manual paper-based transit system by online transit system. Amendments were made in rule 3 and rule 18 of Madhya Pradesh Transit (Forest Produce) Rules 2000 by notification published on 13th May 2021 and the electronic transit permit pass/no objection certificate issued by the online National Transit Pass System (http://ntps nic.in) were made valid in the state. To replace manual paper-based transit system by online transit system, new rules are proposed to be notified repealing all earlier notifications and amendments.

Therefore, in exercise of the powers conferred by sections 41 and 42 read with section 76 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (No. 16 of 1927), the State Government hereby repeals all notifications issued earlier and makes following rules to regulate transit of forest produce, namely:

Rule - 1. Short title, extent and commencement.

(1)     These rules may be called 'Madhya Pradesh Transit (Forest Produce) Rules, 2022.

(2)     These rules shall be applicable to whole of Madhya Pradesh.

(3)     These rules will come into force from the date notified separately by the Madhya Pradesh government in this regard.

Rule - 2. Definitions.

(1)     Act in these rules means the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (No. XVI of 1927)

(2)     Minor Forest Produce means as defined in the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.

Rule - 3. Regulation of transit of forest produce through transit permits.

No forest produce Shall be moved into or outside the State or within the State of Madhya Pradesh except in the manner as herein after provided without an online transit permit in Form-A or an online no-objection certificate issued in the Form-B annexed to these rules or without an online transit permit or online no-objection certificate issued by National Transit Pass System (https://ntps.nic.in).

Transit permit will be required for movement of those forest produce for which no exemption is given in these rules. No-objection Certificate will be issued for those forest produce which have been exempted from the requirement of transit permit.

Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate shall be issued by a Forest Officer or Gram Panchayat or a person duly authorized under these rules or by online National Transit Pass System.

But, no Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be required to move the Forest Produce,

(a)      If it is moved by such a person, within the village boundary, where it is grown and for own domestic use as per the right given by the State Government;

(b)      On such forest produce, that has been exempted by the State Government by gazette notification;

(c)      On such forest produce, that has been obtained from plantations on private lands and the person has registered the information on the online portal after plantation in the manner as prescribed by the Government;

(d)      On such forest produce, which comes under Money Receipt/Rated Pass/Forest Produce Carting Challan issued by the authorized officer under the then prevailing rules made for this purpose.

But, if a person applies for online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate for such species of his ownership, it will be issued to him by the Forest Officer or Gram Panchayat or the person duly authorized under these rules to issue online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

Rule - 4. Officers and Persons to Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

Under these rules, following officers and persons will have powers to issue online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate:

(a)      for Government forest produce, the Divisional Forest Officer or any other Forest Officer authorized by the Forest Divisional Officer in writing for this purpose,

(b)      for the forest produce owned by any person, the Divisional Forest Officer or any other Forest Officer authorized by the Forest Divisional Officer in writing for this purpose, or the Gram Panchayat authorized by the Government under whose jurisdiction the forest produce has been found or grown.

Rule - 5. Rates of Fees for Issue of Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

The State Government will fix the rates of fees for issuance of Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

Rule - 6. Contents of Transport Permit/No-objection Certificate.

(1)     Every transit permit/No-objection Certificate issued under rule 3 shall specify the following:

(a)      Name, address, ID number, mobile number/e-mail ID of the person to whom such Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate is to be issued;

(b)      A list showing quantity and description of forest produce to be transported (including measurements in case of logs) will be attached with the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate;

(c)      Names of places of source and destination of transport of such forest produce:

(d)      Route through which such forest produce will be transported;

(e)      Type of Vehicle and it's registration number;

(f)       Time period during which the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will remain valid:

(g)      Online generated legal transit mark;

(h)     Details of the authority issuing the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate : Designation of the official, Office Address, Office Telephone No/Mobile No. Official Email.

(2)     The online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate shall be issued by the Forest Officer or Gram Panchayat authorized in rule 4 in Form A, B or C.

Form A : Transit Permit

Form B : No-objection Certificate

Form C : Will be issued for Foreign Pass issued by any authority other than online National Transit Pass System.

(3)     Verification of the forest produce shown in the application for transit permit will be done by the authorized forest officer in Form-F and will be uploaded on the online portal.

(4)     A unique ID of each online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate shall be generated online which will also be printed on that online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

(5)     One copy of each online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate issued will be endorsed online to the concerned forest barriers, forest range office and the Forest Division.

(6)     On receipt of complete online application form along with relevant documents and information for each online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate, online transit permit will be issued by the authorized officer within 30 days and no objection certificate within 07 days. On completion of the stipulated time period, the online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be issued automatically from the portal,

Rule - 7. There shall be separate Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate for each load.

No Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate shall cover more than one load.

Rule - 8. Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will not be tampered with.

Nothing in any Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate, printed or written, shall be altered except in respect of route, vehicle and duration except by a forest officer not below the rank of a forester and that too for sufficient reasons to be mentioned in the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate. In such a situation a new revised online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be issued.

Rule - 9. Stamping of transit marks on wood.

No wood shall be allowed to move within Madhya Pradesh unless it bears the transit mark mentioned on the online Transit Permit. There will be no need for transit mark on wood in case of transport with No-objection Certificate.

Rule - 10. Forest produce will be removed only during daylight.

No forest produce shall be transported within the forest between the hours after sunset and before sunrise, without special permission in writing from the Divisional Forest Officer, except on the route shown in the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

Rule - 11. Registration for Import of Forest Produce.

(1)     The State Government may. by notification, specify such species of wood or minor forest produce for import into Madhya Pradesh, for which it will be necessary for the importers to get themselves registered in the office of the concerned Divisional Forest Officer under whose jurisdiction such species of wood or minor forest produce is to be imported.

(2)     On receipt of application for registration and after necessary verification and payment of the amount fixed by the government, the Divisional Forest Officer will register him within 30 days and will give the registration certificate of import in Form-D to the applicant and such registration will be valid for a period of 05 calendar years.

(3)     A person importing notified forest produce shall submit his quarterly information in Form-E online to the Divisional Forest Officer.

Rule - 12. Foreign Pass.

(1)     (a) All such forest produce, which is being imported into the State of Madhya Pradesh, should be accompanied with a Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate issued by the exporting country or State and in the case of wood, each piece should be stamped with the transit mark printed on the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate.

(b) At the time of entering Madhya Pradesh, a new online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be issued by the authorized forest officer at the border forest checking barrier and the original Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be deposited. The online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate issued by the National Transit Pass System (https://ntps.nic.in) will also be valid in the entire state of Madhya Pradesh and no foreign pass is required for the forest produce being transported through it.

(c) When the forest produce is going elsewhere passing through Madhya Pradesh, then the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate will be issued from the first border checking barrier at the entry point to the destination mentioning last border checking barrier of the state.

(2)     Every foreign pass shall be issued in Form C annexed with this rule.

Rule - 13. Marks appearing on the Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate shall not be copied or erased.

Forest Officer or any person, whose duty it is to use such signs, shall not use any similar transit mark or look a like properly mark similar to Government transit mark or such mark with which Government wood has been marked and shall not change or/and erase the transit mark on the wood being transported with online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate issued by a person authorized for this purpose,

Rule - 14. Power to intercept and investigate forest produce in transit.

(1)     Any forest produce during transit, to which these rules apply, and any animal, vehicle, vessel or craft carrying such forest produce, may be stopped, detained, examined or inquired into at any place by any forest, police or revenue officer, if such officer has reasonable grounds for suspecting that the forest produce is being transited in contravention of these rules or any money due to the Government on it has not been paid in respect thereof or that any forest offense has been or is being committed in respect thereof:

Provided that, no such officer shall, unnecessarily detain the forest produce being lawfully transited, with a view to harass, nor cause such forest produce to be unnecessarily unloaded for the purpose of examining it.

(2)     The person in charge of such forest produce shall give all such information, which he is able to give in respect of that forest produce to the Inquiring Officer and if he is transiting the forest produce with an online Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate, then he will submit such Transit Permit/No- objection Certificate for inspection on his demand and will not in any way prevent or oppose the forest produce being stopped or inspected by such officer.

(3)     (a) Every forest produce being transported by transit permit shall be presented for checking at all forest produce barriers on the route.

(b) The officer in-charge of the forest barrier shall check and verify the quantity and the transit mark marked as per the details given in the transit permit. After satisfying with the validity of the forest produce, he will verify the details mentioned in the permit online. The officer in-charge of the forest barrier will enter the date and time online in relation to transit permit.

(4)     If any difference or irregularity is noticed, the provisions of section 52 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 shall apply.

Rule - 15. Penalty for breach of rules.

(1)     Whoever contravenes any of the provisions of these rules or issues transit permits without authorization or in contravention of the provisions of these rules, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees, or with both.

(2)     In cases where the offense is committed after sunset and before sunrise, with preparation for resistance to a lawful authority, or where the offender has previously been convicted of a similar offence, the penalty to be imposed shall be twice the penalty mentioned in sub-rule (1) above.

(3)     For the species exempted by the Government of Madhya Pradesh under sub-rule (3) (a), (b) and (c), the offence will be punishable by a penalty of Rs. Ten Thousand in the case of first offence and Rs. Twenty Thousand in the case of second and subsequent offence.

Rule - 16. Power to compound offences.

In cases, where the forest produce has been seized in the crime is not a government property, or even if it is a government property, it's value is less than Rs. 1,000/- and if the offender has committed the offense for the first time, then the case can be compounded by an officer not below the rank of Sub Divisional Officer on payment of Rs. 10,000/- or the value of the vehicle, whichever is higher. No further action will be taken after compounding of the offense. Confiscated forest produce can be released if it is non-government property or on payment of its value if it is government property.

Rule - 17. Power to remove difficulties.

If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of this rule, the State Government may, for the purpose of removing the difficulty, issue such order not inconsistent with those provisions.

Rule - 18. Protection for action taken in good faith.

No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall be instituted against any officer or person or authority for action taken in good faith in pursuance of this rule or the orders issued by the State Government thereunder.

Rule - 19. Repeal.

On coming into force of these rules, all the rules corresponding to these rules in force in any area of the State of Madhya Pradesh immediately before the commencement of these rules shall stand repealed:

But any action taken under any rule of such repealed rules shall be deemed to have been done under the corresponding provisions of these rules, unless such thing or action is inconsistent with any of the provisions of these rules.

FORM-A

(Rule 6(2)

Transit Permit

(for movement of timber, fuel wood or other forest produce)

 

FORM-B

(Rule 6 (2)

No-objection Certificate

(for movement of timber, fuelwood or other forest produce)

FORM-C

(Rule 6(2)

Foreign Pass

(Not required for Transit Permit/No-objection Certificate issued through NTPS)

(for movement of timber, fuel wood or other forest produce)

 

FORM-D

{Rule 17 (2)}

Registration Certificate for import of Forest Produce

(1)     Registration Certificate No. for import of Forest Produce: (Auto generated)

(2)     Details of the Person/entity importing Forest Produce :

(a) Name : (Auto filled)

(b) Identity card and Number: (Auto filled)

(c) Address : (Auto filled)

(d) Mobile No. : (Auto filled)

(e) E-mail: (Optional)

(3)     Details of Forest Produce being imported:

(a)      Country/State from where Forest Produce will be imported:

(b)      Name of Forest Produce being imported:

(c)      Approximate Quantity of Forest Produce being imported:

(4)     Destination where forest produce is to be transported:

(5)     Name of Forest barriers where forest produce will be produced for inspection:

(6)     Date of Registration :

(7)     Expiry date of registration:

Details of the authority issuing Registration:

(a)      Designation of Official: (Auto Filled)

(b)      Office Address: (Auto Filled)

(c)      Official Telephone No./Mobile No.: (Auto Filled)

(d)      Official Email: (Auto Filled)

FORM-E

{Rule 17 (3)}

Quarterly Account of Imported and Disposed wood from......................To.....

(to be uploaded online)