Allahabad High Court seeks details of State's Compensatory Afforestation Fund
_2_5_0.jpg "Allahabad High Court seeks details of States Compensatory Afforestation Fund")
The petitioner alleged that due to inadequate functioning of the State Authority, even after having been created the fund is not being utilized and also for non forestry activities, people of State are being deprived of green cover.
The Allahabad High Court recently directed the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary in the Department of Forest, Government of Uttar Pradesh to file his personal affidavit furnishing details of State's Compensatory Afforestation Fund.
The bench of Justices DK Upadhyay and Saurabh Srivastava asked the officer to furnish information on following points:
(i) as to when the State fund as envisaged under section 4 of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 in the State of U.P. was established.
(ii) as to whether the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority under section 10 of the Act, 2016 has been created and if yes, then since when is this Authority functioning.
(iii) as to whether the Steering Committee and Executive Committee of the State Authority as provided under section 10 of the Act, 2016 have been constituted and if yes, as to whether the said Committees are functioning and discharging their duties.
(iv) as to whether the State Authority has evolved any policy asto the utilization of the State fund established under section 4 of the Act, 2016.
(v) the total amount in the State fund collected up to date and details of its yearwise utilization.
Court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea filed raising issue of non-implementation of provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act of 2016 in the state of UP.
The counsel for the petitioner alleged that though the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under Section 4 of the Act, 2016 has been established and various agencies are making deposit as well in the said fund in lieu of non-forestry activities carried out by them, however, the fund is not being appropriately utilized.
Neither the State Authority and its Steering Committee and Executive Committee are functioning, he submitted.
He further alleged that on account of inadequate functioning of the State Authority and its Steering and Executive Committees, on one hand the fund even after having been created is not being utilized and on the other hand, on account of non forestry activities, people of State are being deprived of green cover.
Taking note of the submissions made, court called upon the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary Forest, Government of U.P. to file his personal affidavit furnishing the information above-mentioned.
The matter will be next heard on October 18, 2022.
The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 established the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
These Funds are to be primarily spent on afforestation to compensate for loss of forest cover, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection and infrastructure development.
Compensatory afforestation means that every time forest land is diverted for non-forest purposes such as mining or industry, the user agency pays for planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when such land is not available, twice the area of degraded forest land.
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