Rajya Sabha passes CAMPA unlocking Rs 42,000 crore for states' use

Showing rarely unanimity, the Rajya Sabha on Thursday passed the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Bill thus setting the process to unlock Rs42,000 crore to be utilised by the States for afforestation.

The Bill, already passed by Lok Sabha in May this year, proposes to create national and state authorities and a Compensatory Afforestation Fund for approving plans to execute compensatory afforestation works.

The bill sailed for a smooth passage after the minister for environment and forests, Anil Madhav Dave assured the house, in particular his predecessor in the UPA government Jairam Ramesh that the amendments moved by him to have effective consultation with Gram Sabhas on utilisation of CAMPA fund for afforestation will be taken care in the rules.

Asserting that he was not giving false hopes and empty promises, Dave read out a draft which he said takes care of apprehensions that members have regarding clause 6 of the bill and would be included in the Rules of the CAMPA Act.

¨The rules will also be made through consultative process. And if the rules are not adequate, we will revisit them after a year or so. I will not do away with the democratic principles,¨ said Dave giving commitment, witnessed rarely from the government.

Withdrawing his amendment, Ramesh said, ¨As the mister has assured that the spirit of my amendment will be reflected in the rules, I´ll not press for the amendment.¨

During the debate, Ramesh suggesting amendment in clause 6 of the bill had contended that the Bill in its current form would dilute the "historic" Forest Rights Act, 2006, as compensatory afforestation will not be done in consonance with the Gram Sabhas, thus conflicting with their right to individual and community titles.

Trying to dispel apprehensions expressed by many MPs, the minister said, "With the passage of PESA Act (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas) it is not possible to circumvent the people at the ground level as it has strengthened them adequately. Same is the case with Forest Rights Act, We have kept the FRA in mind."

Dave also hoped that given the federal structure of the country the states should have the right to decide on how to spend the money and they are sensible enough to spend the money keeping carbon mitigation and afforestation in mind.

The process has been set rolling for making funds available to the states to start afforestation and will be dispersed as soon as possible, added Dave amid applause from the whole house.

Tribal organisations cry foul of CAMPA

The BJP government may have managed to pass the CAMPA bill but it has earned the wrath of tribal organisations and activists across India for diluting the rights of tribals and forest dwellers by not providing for informed consent of the Gram Sabhas and not taking into account legal rights of STs and OTFDs (Other Traditional Forest Dwellers). In a passionate appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the tribal rights organisations from states of Gujurat, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Chhattisgarh have decried the move of the "government and parliamentarians in diluting and the rights of Gram Sabha given in the Forests Rights Act, 2006 in a very cunning manner."