State forest dept ‘no’ to let Centre retain 10% CAMPA fund

The Times of India , Monday, January 25, 2016
Correspondent : Vijay Pinjarkar
Nagpur: Even as the parliamentary standing committee on science and technology, environment, forests and climate change expressed displeasure over Maharashtra government not submitting its views on draft Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015, the state forest department has opposed the plan to retain 10% of the funds by the Centre.

The Bill plans to establish National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (NCAF) and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund (SCAF) for CAMPA monies under public account. The NCAF will allocate 90% of the funds received from net present value (NPV) to the states for compensatory afforestation and retain 10% of the funds with it.

However, the PCCF has opposed the move saying, "The CA levies are to be spent on compensatory afforestation only. The amount generated under CAMPA funds need to be invested back in the state for forest and wildlife development. Therefore, retaining 10% funds by the Centre is not justified."

The CAMPA fund towards NPV of different states stands at Rs38,000 crore, of which Maharashtra's share is Rs1,900 crore. If 10% of it is retained by the Centre, it comes to a whopping Rs190 crore, which can help relocate at least 2,000 families from villages inside tiger reserves and sanctuaries in the state.

However, at the same time, wildlife experts have apprehended that releasing 90% of CAMPA funds may also lead to misuse or diversion in the absence of strong accountability and stringent guidelines.

On Sunday, Rajya Sabha member and chairman of the committee Bhupinder Singh said, "The NGOs were well prepared and gave valuable suggestions, which will be included in the report. Looking into several environmental hazards owing to air, noise and water pollution in Vidarbha, besides man-animal conflict and crop depredation by wildlife, judicious use of CAMPA funds is needed with public participation."

Singh also raised the sensitive issue of road widening of NH-7 (Mansar-Khawasa) and NH-6 (Bhandara-Deori), and said strong mitigation measures should be taken as it will completely break the tiger corridor to various parks. He also suggested single window scheme to address problems related to forests. "There is a need to increase compensation for cattle kills by wildlife from present Rs10,000 to Rs30,000 on the lines of MP," Singh said.

Of the 31-member committee, only seven were present at Nagpur. This included Nana Patole, CP Narayanan, Paul Manoj Pandian, AK Singh, Prabhatsinh Chauhan and NK Pradhan. Before visiting Maharashtra, the committee has toured Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and MP.

When scribes pointed out that CAMPA funds were being misused to procure luxury vehicles and renovate offices of senior officials, Singh said all factors including failures and misuse of CAMPA money have been taken into consideration and will be reflected in the report. "We cannot reveal everything at this juncture," he said.

Singh said failure of plantations under CAMPA in the state is an issue. "NGOs had raise the issue that if forest plantations were successful, why was forest cover dwindling," he added.

WHAT THE FOREST DEPT WANTS

* Centre should not retain 10% of CAMPA funds received from NPV. This money is for development of forest and wildlife in the state

* State governing body of CAMPA should be chaired by forest minister and not by CM as recommended in Bill. CM is busy and cannot devote time

* Planning, revenue, agriculture, panchayat raj, science & technology departments should not be part of the state CAMPA authority. It should only include environment, tribal, finance and rural development departments

* Forest department opposed to financial controller or financial adviser in the Bill

* Bill envisages state CAMPA fund to be kept in interest bearing fund under public account. Forest department says there is no point in investing surplus amount and expose to market risks

 
SOURCE : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/State-forest-dept-no-to-let-Centre-retain-10-CAMPA-fund/articleshow/50710349.cms
 


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