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Journalism of Courage
NAGPUR, May 20: The ambitious World Bank (WB) sponsored Maharashtra Forestry Project is likely to get a setback in the wake of the Pokharan nuclear test by the Vajpayee Government.
The WB had initially sanctioned a sum of Rs 413.51 crore for the project in 1992-93 which was later reduced to Rs 350 crore. The Washington-based international financial institution had already released a sum of Rs 270-crore for the project.
The WB had assisted only two states in the country on forest development and conservation — Maharashtra and West Bengal. While it sanctioned a hefty amount for Maharashtra, West Bengal got around Rs 200 crore. The six-year Maharashtra Forestry Project for which Rs 350 crore credit has been received from the Bank, is scheduled to be completed in September 1998.
The State forest headquarters here feels that it will be difficult to get the balance amount of Rs 80 crore after the fallout of the nuclear test as almost all foreign countries have decided to stop financial aide to India.Thoughthe WB is technically independent of the western governments which have applied economic sanctions against India, forest officials feel that the USA will prevail upon the WB to cut down aide.
The main thrust of the programme which was launched in 1992, has been on developing 18,000 sq km of forest land, out of 63,767 sq km of forest cover in the State which has degraded forest or is totally wasteland and 1,15,000 sq km of non-forest land.
A major amount was utilised for production forestry and wildlife conservation. A substantial amount of WB loan also used for forest research, education and development.
The local forest officials fear that abandoning the project half-way would come in the way of realising the planned result. Much of the amount already spent will become unproductive expenditure. Even need may arise for retrenchment of staff. Both State and central governments should carefully examine the possibilities of alternative source of funding the project. The abrupt discontinuation of theproject will be a disaster, they have warned.
Besides the on-going WB assistance to Maharashtra and West Bengal, the Union government has sent another ambitious National Forestry Action Plan with the financial assistant from the WB for overall forestry development in 25 states and six territories. The proposal includes: the extension of on-going financial assistant of WB to Maharashtra.
The action is proposed following the success of the WB sponsored Maharashtra Forestry Project and is also a sequel to the Rio De Janeiro conference on bio-diversity.
The Union Forest and Environment Ministry was expecting over 1,000 million dollars aid for the project. The Union government had prepared the action plan on the basis of proposals submitted by each State and Union Territory regarding their respective foreign aid requirement for the project. The Maharashtra forest department also sent a comprehensive proposal on it to continue its on-going forestry project for further few years. It is apprehended that thistoo will be adversely affected due to the new development.
