Harish Rawat reviews afforestation works

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 20

Chief Minister Harish Rawat today held a joint meeting to review works linked to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The Chief Minister said to remove poverty from rural areas, community-based programmes should be undertaken to enhance productivity. “The aim of these programmes is to link people with finance and market. It is important that these programmes are linked to regional development and a proper procedure is followed for their implementation,” said Rawat.

He gave orders for scaling up the implementation of the schemes. He said action should be taken against officials who utilise less than 80 per cent of the amount allocated to them under these schemes. He called for a clear project plan and at least one meeting a week for the purpose. Referring to the CAMPA scheme, he said the scheme must focus on forest protection, security wall construction, protection of forests from fire, repair of water sources, formation of water bodies and construction of check dams as well as strengthening of van panchayats.

He said schemes related to the JICA must be implemented on the ground. He emphasised on the formation of cluster-based federations. Farmers must be identified to develop nurseries.

Rawat said all schemes must work in coordination with each other. He asked the officials to ensure that the projects were promoted well so that the maximum number of people get to know about these. Congress MLA Shail Rani Rawat, Chief Secretary N Ravishankar, Additional Chief Secretary S Raju and Principal Secretary Dr Ranveer Singh were present.