India
Telangana: Telangana’s inability to utilise green funds impacting state’s flora and fauna: Centre | India News
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NEW DELHI: The Centre has flagged non-utilisation of Rs 610 crore green funds in Telangana in the last three years, noting that the state government’s inability to utilise the money released for compensatory afforestation has impacted habitats of various flora and fauna. It also pointed out that the state has not even released its share of money towards the highly focused Project Tiger even as Telangana is one of the few states where tiger population decreased and immediate conservation measures need to be taken.
Sharing details of fund utilisation gaps in the state, the Union minister of tourism and culture G Kishan Reddy on Sunday wrote to Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao requesting him to take appropriate measures to restore the lost forest area in the state by “making full use of the funds released by the central government”.
Reddy referred to the compensatory afforestation management and planning authority (CAMPA) funds, meant to restore the lost forest area through afforestation. Loss happened as the forests were diverted for non-forest use such as industrial, mining and infrastructure projects over the years.
As a part of CAMPA, Telangana has to create an Annual Plan of Operations (APO) for spending the Rs 3,110 crore funds released by the Centre to the state. Accordingly, the state government was to spend Rs 1,737 crores in three years between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
Reddy in his letter to Rao pointed out that the actual utilization during this period was, however, over Rs 1,127 crores which is a gap of around Rs. 610 crores in a plan that was devised by the state.
He also noted that apart from afforestation, the Centre had released about Rs 30 crores worth of funds under various centrally sponsored schemes for forest conservation, wildlife conservation, and the maintenance of parks and zoos in the last eight years. “Many reports make it clear that the state government is neglecting to utilize these funds properly,” said the letter, whose content was released to the media here by the environment ministry.
The Union minister underlined that the Telangana government has not been able to release even its share of Rs 2.2 crores towards Project Tiger even as a recent report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had brought to light that tigers were locally extirpated form Kawal tiger reserve and Chennur.
Sharing details of fund utilisation gaps in the state, the Union minister of tourism and culture G Kishan Reddy on Sunday wrote to Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao requesting him to take appropriate measures to restore the lost forest area in the state by “making full use of the funds released by the central government”.
Reddy referred to the compensatory afforestation management and planning authority (CAMPA) funds, meant to restore the lost forest area through afforestation. Loss happened as the forests were diverted for non-forest use such as industrial, mining and infrastructure projects over the years.
As a part of CAMPA, Telangana has to create an Annual Plan of Operations (APO) for spending the Rs 3,110 crore funds released by the Centre to the state. Accordingly, the state government was to spend Rs 1,737 crores in three years between 2019-20 and 2021-22.
Reddy in his letter to Rao pointed out that the actual utilization during this period was, however, over Rs 1,127 crores which is a gap of around Rs. 610 crores in a plan that was devised by the state.
He also noted that apart from afforestation, the Centre had released about Rs 30 crores worth of funds under various centrally sponsored schemes for forest conservation, wildlife conservation, and the maintenance of parks and zoos in the last eight years. “Many reports make it clear that the state government is neglecting to utilize these funds properly,” said the letter, whose content was released to the media here by the environment ministry.
The Union minister underlined that the Telangana government has not been able to release even its share of Rs 2.2 crores towards Project Tiger even as a recent report by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had brought to light that tigers were locally extirpated form Kawal tiger reserve and Chennur.
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