NGOs disappear with money meant for afforestation

May 2, 2012

plantation

New Delhi, May 2: Making a mockery of the government’s afforestation programme, many non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have disappeared with crores of tax-payers’ money released by the government for planting saplings.

Out of 560 projects sanctioned to voluntary agencies between 2003 and 2008, proponents of 537 projects vanished midway with the first and second instalment of funds amounting close to Rs 30 crore without showing any evidence for completion of the work.

Only in 20 projects — 3.57 per cent of total projects costing Rs 1.79 crore — were all the three instalment of grants released as agencies could submit documentary evidence in support of their previous work.

“The possibility of misutilisation (of fund) or fraud is not ruled out as a majority of the voluntary agencies neither came back to the National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board for the next instalments after the release of first instalment nor furnish utilisation certificate or progress reports,” the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament said in its report.

The report was tabled in Parliament last week. While in 352 projects only the first instalment amounting to Rs 13.64 crore was released, in another 185 projects the second instalment worth Rs 15.92 crore was released. In the absence of evaluation reports and utilisation certificate, subsequent funds were not released.

Despite such clear instance of siphoning off government money, the Union Environment Ministry blacklisted only seven agencies. An FIR was filed against one officer. Environment Secretary T Chatterjee said prior to 2005, there was no specific target for plantation activity, which could be monitored. The scheme was “demand driven”.

“In afforestation programmes, monitoring should happen before monsoon to involve local community, during monsoon to see the actual planting and after monsoon to check the results. It does not happen in India most of the time,” R Siddappa Setty, a fellow at Bangalore-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, told Deccan Herald.

The PAC report took off from an earlier auditing of the centrally-sponsored forestry scheme by the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2010.

The Environment Ministry reworked the forestry programmes in 2005 with the launch of “Greening India” project subsuming earlier schemes with an option for evaluation.

The CAG audit found that NAEB left monitoring of afforestation programmes solely at the discretion of state forest departments, whose role was restricted to verifying ground realities before recommending the same for the second instalments.

A mid-term evaluation of Greening India by Society for Social Services, Madhya Bharat, in 2007 revealed that out of 170 voluntary outfits approached by the society only 33 responded.

Around 15 questionnaires were returned due to unavailability of addresses. In addition, field inspection was conducted on 59 projects.

The evaluation found eight voluntary agencies misappropriated funds and ten outfits tried to avoid inspection. The benefits—forestation of a patch of land —have not been quantified in any of the 59 projects on which the government money was spent. “Many times, the agencies failed to identify proper species and location, which is a must for the success of forestry programmes as exotic species may not survive. The local community also has to be involved from the first point to the last point,” Setty explained.

As the government aims to cover 33 per cent of the country with tree and forest cover, afforestation always remains high on the government agenda.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Mumbai, Jan 30: Speaking at an event, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Abu Azmi's son and businessman, Farhan Azmi said that if CM Uddhav Thackeray will build lord Ram's Temple at Ayodhya then he will build Babri Masjid there. He said, "My problem is with Uddhav Thackeray.

I respect him a lot and if in Shiv Sena somebody really deserves respect, then it is no other than Uddhav Thackeray. He never runs a government and I don't think he is running his party correctly.

If being the Chief Minister, Uddhav Thackeray says he is going to Ayodhya on 7th March, I will also go with him. He will build lord Ram's Temple and we will build Babri Masjid."

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News Network
January 9,2020

New Delhi, Jan 9: The Union government has removed the central security cover of Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam and DMK leader M K Stalin, officials said on Thursday.

They said while Paneerselvam had a smaller 'Y+' cover of central paramilitary commandos, Stalin had a larger 'Z+' protection.

The security cover of these two politicians has been taken off from the central security list after a threat assessment review was made by central security agencies and approved by the Union home ministry, they said.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) commandos were protecting these two leaders of Tamil Nadu.

However, they said, the central security cover will be formally taken off after the state police takes over their security task, they added.

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Agencies
May 26,2020

New Delhi, May 26: The in-fighting among the residents of housing societies over feeding of stray dogs is nowhere near ending, with yet another attack on a pregnant Russian woman again in the national capital region this time in Noida.

The Russian woman residing in a condominium in Noida's Sector 71 was allegedly attacked by two men for feeding foundling canines inside the complex.

"We have initiated an inquiry and a case has been registered against the men for voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation," Amit Kumar Singh, Station House Officer of Phase 3 police station told IANS.

The police said that the victim is married to an Indian man and they live in that society.

The issue was raked up on social media by one of the residents of the society. Her post had even solicited a response and help from the Noida Police Commissioner.

Kaveri Rana Bharadwaj wrote, "Mob led by Vikas Sharma, and Mr. Chauhan beat up a pregnant woman in Jagriti Apartment, Sector 71 Noida. Request you to immediately arrest these men and provide security to the scared woman!"

When contacted, a member of the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) of the society said that the allegations levied by her are false and that he, along with a handful of other people, had only asked her not to feed the dogs.

Vikas Sharma divulged, "The woman was called at the society gate by the members of the RWA. When she was asked not to feed the street dogs, she became aggressive, started fighting with the residents of the society and even pushed a 70-year-old woman. The complaint that she registered against us is false. We did not even touch her."

He added that there are 70-80 street dogs in the society who have lately become extremely aggressive. "The lady was asked not to feed them as people feared stepping out of their houses and getting bitten."

In another incident on Tuesday, a Greater Noida man beat up a Chinese woman for allegedly fostering a stray dog which bit his canine.

Greater Noida District Commissioner of Police Rajesh Kumar Singh told IANS that the man named Amar Pratap Singh of ATS Paradiso misbehaved with the woman after his dog was bit by another dog who she used to feed every day.

The incident happened in the wee hours of the day when the accused took his dog out for a walk. "After his dog was bitten, in a fit of rage, he misbehaved with the Chinese woman." A Non-Cognizable Report (NCR) has been registered and no arrests have been made so far, the police said.

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