Shimla, Aug. 16 -- Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu on Saturday urged the Union government to provide at least one bigha of land to families whose homes and farmlands have been washed away in the ongoing monsoon disaster, and to relax provisions of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, to make forest land available for rehabilitation.

"In Himachal, 68 per cent of land falls under forests, and the Forest Conservation Act applies there. The state government cannot use even one inch of that land for rehabilitation or to provide to the needy. I appeal to the Centre to relax this law so that land can be made available to disaster-hit families," Sukhu told reporters.

The Chief Minister noted that the state has already annou...