Compensatory plantation or afforestation as it is called, is central to the very aim of compensating loss caused to forests on account of diverting of forest land for various non forest uses . A fund known as Compensatory Afforestation Fund is created as it is imposed on the person or institution undertaking the diversion even if for various developmental purposes. There being a proper legislative mechanism for creating an institutional structure to see and ensure that utilization process of the said funds collected in lieu or as cost of forest land diverted for various uses, both at Central as well as State / UT levels, was done all in a transparent and efficient manner. It, therefore, follows that the end use of such money collected was exclusively for replenishment of what the forests had lost on account of such diversion. That means regular , effective and austere audit of such accounts . In addition to that, which works and projects were handled and executed and how that helped in compensating the loss caused to the forest land and all about that, periodic reports must be submitted by the Forest Department. Having said all this, a critical analysis of how CAMPA accounts were monitored and what level of compliance of the provisions of the relevant Act were there in Jammu and Kashmir reveals absolutely not a satisfactory picture. It is to be noted that the aim of the Fund is to restore the forest cover which carries special significance in Jammu and Kashmir.
The concerned Forest Department, therefore, had to throw enough light as to why the compensatory works were going on at absolutely a slow pace and financial provisions not appearing to be strictly complied with. Are details regularly provided by the Forest Department in respect of which area or areas were identified for the purposes of afforstation? Are CAMPA funds collected remaining wholly or in part idle and not utilized for purposes specific or if there were any breaches in following the Supreme Court judgments and observance of financial procedures etc – which all could be known only through a proper audit is reported to be still incomplete. We learn that Comptroller and Auditor General of India had outsourced the comprehensive audit of the CAMPA funds for the period 2010 to 2020 barring 2019-20 but neither has the audit been completed so far nor any status report submitted or broader picture projected by a summary note to be followed by a detailed report. It is believed that the delay was Caused due to COVID related problems but it is beyond comprehension that the “extension” of March 2021 again stretched to July 31, 2021 has not resulted in the audit report being prepared and made known. With such a position, it can be just visualised as to when shall the audit report containing possibly certain irregularities be attended to and rectified or this much known as to what extent the financial provisions were complied with. Why should the possibility of having CAMPA related transactions etc not be subjected to concurrent audit to rule out any breach in financial guidelines and to know forehand the areas of weakness where due attention was required to be focussed to remove chances of gross irregularities.
Taking the case of works currently undertaken, CAMPA guidelines and norms for internal verification and inspection should have been followed as per time schedule fixed but the fact of the matter is as to when the concerned works would be completed is not known due to absence of internal monitoring and fixing of target oriented timelines. While attending to issues of conservation, afforestation and preservation of forest lands, why are teams of Forest Officers not constituted to oversee and inspect CAMPA related works and ensure due adherence to guidelines so as to have an annual report prepared?, That annual reports for the financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21 are still not prepared by the CAMPA secretariat suggest that due responsibility and seriousness were absent with regard to the CAMPA related important issues though those are covered under an Act of Parliament. Correct details and data in respect of compensatory afforestation works must be ensured not only to be completed well in time but that it was not based on window dressing or given incorrect as is otherwise found. When even audits were incomplete, fate of other related works not known , under such a scenario how could it be ascertained whether any CAMPA related work was really being done or not under the supervision and control of the Forest Department of Jammu and Kashmir.
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