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| Money allocated for protecting forests diverted to buy to buy LEDs, IPods and Sofas | | When JK rulers took cover of Art 370 to embezzle central grants | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 30: The Jammu and Kashmir government has in the past taken cover of Article 370 in order to swindle money granted by the GOI to protect state's forest cover.
The state forest department till August 5, this year was governed by J&K Forest Conservation Act of 1997. Taking cover of this special privilege, the state chose not to implement CAMPA guidelines.
In a most bizarre move the state authorities in the past purchased carpets LEDs, IPods from the money that was allotted for planting trees and saving forests in Jammu and Kashmir.
The inquiry initiated that time mentioned that the state dispensation diverted funds collected for afforestation towards all sorts of things - payment of loan, advances, sports meet, payment to private hotels etc. Expenditure was incurred on purchase of carpets, LEDs, ACs, iPods, sofa sets, projectors, installation of office cabins, installation of electric transformer, vehicles etc.
The CAG made stinging remarks and pulled up the JK government for its lack of seriousness on afforestation drive which was almost negligible.
"As of December 2012, the J&K forest department diverted 10,683.86 hectares of land to user agencies for non-forest purposes but its net present value for compensatory afforestation estimated at Rs 796 crore was not realized from user agencies," the report mentioned.
The inquiry report stated that there was no measure taken by the state government to create a fresh forest cover as the funds for afforestation was not collected. Interestingly, it is the duty of the state to collect funds from user agencies and allocate appropriate land on which reforestation can be carried out.
The CAG report earlier had in detail mentioned that as Sofas and LEDs were purchased from the funds which were approved for the afforestration, 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.
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.
Reports informed that 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 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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