The National Republican Guard (GNR) identified 23,968 situations of non-compliance with the cleaning of forest land and installed 290 administrative offenses for burning and burning, of which eight people were arrested and 44 were identified for the crime of fire. forestry.

In response to the Lusa agency, GNR reiterated that the inspection phase of forest cleaning works is scheduled to start on “May 1st”, that is, on Friday, with the owners, in case of non-compliance, subject to administrative offenses, with fines ranging between 280 and 120,000 euros.

“The inspection phase has not yet started, as the deadline for carrying out the fuel management works has been extended until April 30,” stated the GNR.

At issue is the deadline for carrying out land clearing operations, which ended on March 15, but was extended until April 30, by decision of the Government on April 2, following the decree-law that established exceptional measures and temporary covid-19 disease pandemic.

Within the scope of Operation Safe Forest 2020, GNR carried out “an extensive plan to monitor / raise awareness of the 1,114 priority parishes” due to the high risk of fire, which involved 670 non-priority parishes, culminating in the “identification of 23,968 situations in non-compliance ”in relation to the cleaning of forest land.

Thus, of the 3,092 parishes in Portugal, GNR monitored the cleaning work in 1,784 parishes, which resulted in around 24 thousand non-compliances, situations that risk administrative proceedings starting on Saturday, following the inspection phase.

Non-compliance with the cleaning of forest land was “already communicated to the respective municipalities”, said the GNR, without mentioning which areas are more problematic.

In addition to these situations, this security force registered “eight detainees and 44 identified for the practice of forest fire, and 290 administrative offenses were also prepared, for violation of the burning and burning rules”.

In the case of administrative offenses, punishable by a fine, from 280 to 10,000 euros, in the case of a natural person, and from 1,600 to 120,000 euros, in the case of legal persons, “the procedural process is independent of the extension of the deadline for carrying out cleaning operations “, explained the GNR.

On April 2, more than two weeks after the date of March 15, the Government announced the extension until April 30 of the deadline for the owners to ensure the cleaning of the forest land, in the scope of the renewal of the state of emergency due to the Covid-19.

“It is important not to forget that the country has an enormous risk of forest fire and that this risk requires a major cleaning effort”, emphasized the Prime Minister, António Costa, explaining that the decision to extend the deadline aimed “to create better conditions so that people can fulfill this obligation, taking into account the strong movement limitations that exist “.

In view of the non-compliance by the owners with the deadline for cleaning land, city councils must ensure, until May 31, that all fuel management works are carried out.

In case of non-compliance by the municipalities, “the following month, 20% of the twelfth of the current transfers from the Financial Equilibrium Fund (FEF) are retained”, according to the Exceptional Regime for the Secondary Networks of Fuel Management Bands.