Special training for TN forest officials

Chennai, June 1 (IANS) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Palaniswami on Friday said special training will be given to the forest officials to control forest fires and saving people caught in them.

Making a statement in the assembly, he said most of the forest fires are caused due to human error while the Forest Department is taking steps to control them.

He said the government will allot Rs 2 crore for forest officials to train them in controlling forest fires and save those who are caught in it. Forest officials will be provided the basic equipment for this purpose, he added.

The Chief Minister also announced construction of a new headquarters for the Forest Department here at an outlay of Rs 30 crore and provision of 125 jeeps for the department at an outlay of Rs 12.50 crore.

Palaniswami also announced the government's plan to construct information technology parks in Coimbatore and Tiruchirapalli.

He said a sum of Rs 21.39 crore will be allocated for developing cyber security architecture for Tamil Nadu to safeguard the state government's IT infrastructure against cyber attacks and provision of online services without any interruption.