Draft CAMPA bill proposes stringent penalties on violators

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Bhupinder Singh, Chairman of the Parliamentary standing committee on the Bill, said, “Discussions on different provisions of the draft bill have been held with the states and few more will be added by the committee, which has members from all the political parties. There will be strict guidelines to the states as how to spend the CAMPA funds and carryout afforestation activities in the project affected areas.”

In the past two days, the committee members held detailed interactions with the state government and other stake holders .

Bhupinder said Himachal Pradesh has suggested that only one percent of the CAMPA fund should be given to the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund authority and rest 99 percent should be left to the state. Earlier provision proposes sharing of the CAMPA money on 90:10 basis i.e. 90 percent by the state and rest 10 percent by the national authority .

“Since the recommendations of the committee are going to be secret in in nature. We can’t make a comment on the final proposal,” Bhupinder said .

The National fund authority will have experts, NGOs and representatives from the state, beside other officials. In the draft Bill, compensatory afforestation has been defined as afforestation done in lieu of the diversion of forest land for non-forest use under the Forests (Conservation) Act, 1980.

Bhupinder Singh said the committee has taken a notice of the fact that a large part of rivers like Satluj and Ravi in Himachal Pradesh will disappear due to new projects proposed and already set up as the water flow had been diverted through tunnels. The rights of the affected peoples in the project areas will also be protected fully, he said.

The Bill will create a proper institutional mechanism, both at the national level and state level, for utilising of the CAMPA fund for purposes to mitigate the adverse affects of the diversion of the forest land or felling of the trees .