Ignoring directions

15/12/2018

Majority of the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) have been soft-paddling on the preparation of Annual Plan of Operations for mitigating the impact of forest land diversion for various developmental projects despite repeated communiqués from the Project Coordinator of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).This is notwithstanding the fact that only one month has been left for submission of details to the National Authority by the concerned authorities of the State Forest Department for approval. For utilization of forest land for various developmental activities, the user agencies pay monies for compensatory afforestation and the same are kept in a dedicated fund called Compensatory Afforestation Fund. Subsequently, the funds are released as per the Annual Plan of Operations so as to mitigate the impact of forest land diversion.
As per the draft J&K Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018, the Annual Plan of Operations for the next financial year is required to be submitted by the State Authority to the National Authority by or before December 31 every year. To meet this time-line, the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs)/Implementing Agencies are required to initiate the process of preparation of Annual Plan of Operations in the month of October. For the convenience of the DFOs/ Implementing Agencies even the draft J&K Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018 were placed before them through their respective Heads of the Departments besides the ceiling proposed for 2019-20 financial year.
However, majority of the DFOs have failed to meet the deadline of November 15, 2018 in utter disregard to the explicit communication of CAMPA Project Coordinator and in blatant violation of J&K Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018. For utilization of monies received from user agencies for compensatory afforestation separate plan as per the division-wise CA amount received during the year 2018-19 is required to be prepared. Similarly, for utilization of monies received from user agencies for road-side plantation separate plan is required to be drafted. For utilization of monies received from diversion of forest lands in protected areas, the plan needs to be prepared for wildlife conservation as provided in the Wildlife Management Plan.

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