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| How NC govt spent funds meant for tree plantation on ACs and Ipods | | | Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Apr 7: The funds meant for tree plantation were spent on carpets, LEDs and Ipods during the National Conference-led coalition government in J&K, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.
In its 2013 report, the CAG has mentioned that the state government diverted funds for afforestation towards all sorts of things-payment of loan, sports meet, payment to private hotels, etc.
The money was also spent on purchase of ACs, sofa sets, projectors, installation of office cabins, electric transformers and vehicles.
"As of December 2012, the J&K Forest Department diverted 10,683.86 hectares of land to user agencies for non-forest purposes. Its net present value for compensatory afforestation estimated at Rs 796 crore was not realized from user agencies," the CAG report says.
It says that there was no measure taken by the state government to create a fresh forest cover as the funds for afforestation were not collected funds from user agencies.
"The expenditure was in complete violation of Supreme Court guidelines issued while creating the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) to monitor mandatory afforestation wherever forest land was diverted for non-forest use," the CAG report says.
As Central Forest (Conservation) Act is not applicable to J&K, the state level steering committee (SLSC) was empowered to take decisions on all afforestation activities and allocation of funds. The panel failed to restrict unauthorized expenditure of CAMPA funds in the state, which resulted in expenditure on sports meet, payment to private hotels etc.
Pertinently, the state Forest Department is governed by J&K Forest Conservation Act of 1997. Taking cover of this special privilege, the state chose not to implement CAMPA guidelines.
Between 2006-07 to 2011-12, the state CAMPA fund of Rs 67 crore was released out of which Rs 55 crore was spent. The nature of this expenditure was questioned by CAG.
The CAG report also takes dig at the state authorities as Rs 796 crore was to be collected from user agencies for reforestation. The money was not collected. It adds that J&K Forest Department diverted 10,684 hectares of land between 1991 and 2012 for non-forest use.
The auditor also found large variation in figures of allocation and expenditure of CAMPA funds. Large variations were revealed in at least eight forest divisions of the state, the test check of records revealed. |
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