TIA NEWS
Parliament has passed Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2016 (CAMPA Bill). The new law would be able to help in preserving India’s forest life.
It will pave the way for unlocking Rs 41,000 crore earmarked for forest land, lying unspent for about four years.
Rajya Sabha passes Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill yesterday. Lok sabha has already approved it, and the bill is now just a step away from becoming law.
The efforts to preserve India’s forest and jungle life will soon get a legislative boost as the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2016 (CAMPA Bill) has got an approval from the Rajya Sabha.
Govt has said that the bill is a step to ensure empowerment of tribals and rural people.
Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) is meant to promote afforestation and regeneration activities as a way of compensating for forest land diverted to non-forest uses.The bill will work towards achieving this potential.
If any user agency wants to divert forest land for non-forest purposes, it has to deposit money for compensatory afforestation besides a few other charges. It is to manage this money, and to use it for the designated purposes, that CAMPA is proposed to be set up.
The compensatory afforestation money is supposed to be collected from the user agency by the government of the state in which the project is located, and deposited with the central government.
The money will eventually flow back to the state to be used for afforestation or related works.
The bill seeks to create a national CAMPA at the central government level, and a state CAMPA in each state and UT. Similarly, a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF), and one in each state and UT too are sought to be created.
The states would, however, receive only 90% of their share; the other 10% would be held back to cover administrative expenses.
During the discussion Congress moved an amendment that the money from CAMPA may not be used unless until cleared by the Gram Sabha.
The Supreme Court on 10th July 2009 issued orders that there will be CAMPA as National Advisory Council under the chairmanship of the Union Minister of Environment & Forests for monitoring, technical assistance and evaluation of compensatory afforestation activities. But most of about 42 000 crores were locked up till now because of legislative hurdles.
Setting of campa will eventually allow the centre to release the funds due to states. This may well be a single biggest step taken by India to ensure that while development objectives are met, it does not comes at the cost of country’s green cover and forests.