Jammu, Jan 27: Lieutenant Governor will head the revamped Union Territory Forest Development Agency (FDA) for effective planning, implementation and monitoring of the National Mission for Green India (GIM) in Jammu and Kashmir.
Besides FDA, the government has also put in place the Chief-Secretary led UT Steering Committee, UT level Executive Committee and District Steering Committees to achieve the objective.
National Mission for a Green India (GIM) is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to climate change. The target under the Mission is 10 m ha on forest and non-forest lands for increasing the forest or tree cover and to improve the quality of existing forest.
“The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI Aayog, Government had conducted the evaluation of National Mission for a Green India in 2020-21 on aspects such as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, sustainability, impacts and equity within the scheme and had recommended the continuation of scheme,” official sources stated.
As per official documents, under the Mission, J&K was allocated Rs 25.73 for the Financial Year 2020-21 which remained unutilised (No Utilization Certificate was provided). For J&K, advance work target of 5680 ha was fixed under the Mission from Financial Year 2015-16 to 2020-21.
Revamped UT FDA’s general body will comprise the Lieutenant Governor, Jammu & Kashmir as chairperson while the Chief Secretary, J&K will be its member.
Administrative Secretary, Department of Forests, Ecology and Environment; Principal Chief Conservator of Forests; Chief Wildlife Warden; Nodal Officer (Forest Conservation); Chairman, Executive Committee, all FDAs (CFs); Member Secretary, Executive Committee, all FDAs (Hq DFOs (T)); Nodal officer (state CAMPA); representative of three eminent NGOs of the UT viz., representative of WWF- India, Nazir B Nazir, National Society for Protection of Water Resources, Wetlands & Forests (NGO) and Nadeem Qadri, Wildlife Conservation Fund, (NGO) will also be its members.
Nodal Officer, GIM, Chief Conservator of Forests, (Planning & Projects) will be its member secretary.
FDA general body will provide overall guidance for the Mission in achieving its goals and objectives and oversee implementation of the board policy framework in achieving them (goals). The committee will meet at least once a year.
Chief-Secretary led UT Steering Committee has been tasked to provide for overall guidance and synergy with other programmes so that inter-dependent coordination and convergence can be ensured. It will also finalize the Perspective Plan for each L1 landscape in the UT, APO of the UT Mission and forward them to Government of India for approval; monitor the progress of the utilization of funds released by the UT GIM and it will work as Empowered Committee for financial sanctions and approvals at the UT level in accordance with guidelines issued by MoEF&CC from time to time. It will meet at least once in six months.
UT level Executive Committee and District Steering Committees will be headed by the Administrative Secretary Department of Forests, Ecology and Environment and the concerned District Development Commissioners respectively.