ITANAGAR, 30 Oct: The Save Arunachal Movement (SAM) on Monday demanded that the state government constitute a state-level monitoring committee to evaluate various schemes implemented under the state’s Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) within 30 days.
SAM general secretary Sangey Phuntsok, addressing the media, said that, if the government fails to address the demand “within the span of one month,” the organisation would “opt for legal action in the form of public interest litigation.
He claimed that CAMPA schemes across the state have been implemented in violation of the norms of the CAMPA Act, 2016.
Phuntsok further claimed that “more than Rs. 848 crore which were intended to accelerate the preservation of natural forests, wildlife and other allied works for the larger interest of the state has been embezzled by the forest department’s officers.”
Informing that the organisation has accumulated all the necessary documents through an RTI application from the department concerned, Phuntsok said that, “according to the CAMPA Act, memorandum of understanding was supposed to be done between department and landowner, but to our utter dismay, the same was not followed in case of state of Arunachal Pradesh by the forest department.”
“From 2018 to 2023, departments have been carrying out plantation schemes across the state without the knowledge of the actual landowners,” said SAM chairman Tami Pangu.
Stating that “till date the department concerned and officers have breached the laid down rules, besides duping the villagers of the state, which is serious in nature,” the SAM appealed to the Special Investigation Cell to expedite the investigation process and punish all the officers involved in gross mismanagement of funds meant for preservation of nature.
The SAM’s demands also include “evaluation of physical achievement of plantation work initiated under CAMPA outside reserve forest areas; demarcation of the area falling under afforestation works carried out by the forest department under CAMPA; and inquiry into whether guidelines for scheme proposal were followed or not.”
