The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Authorities

In one line

Two authorities, four committees, a monitoring group and an audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General, built because a very large sum of money had been collected and not spent.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 10 constitutes in each State a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority, with a governing body chaired ex officio by the Chief Minister, assisted by a steering committee chaired by the Chief Secretary and an executive committee chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests; sections 14 to 19 distribute the powers between the governing bodies, the executive committees and the monitoring group; section 22 and section 27 provide for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor-General; and sections 24 and 29 require the annual report and audit report to be laid before Parliament and the State Legislature.

The State Authority

Section 10. A State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority is constituted in each State from the date the Central Government appoints, and different dates may be appointed for different States. It is responsible for the management of that State's Fund and its utilisation, and consists of a governing body assisted by a steering committee and an executive committee.

The governing body, section 10(5): the Chief Minister as Chairperson ex officio, or in a Union territory without a legislature the Lieutenant Governor or Administrator; the Minister of Forests; the Chief Secretary; the Principal Secretaries of the departments dealing with environment, finance, planning, rural development, revenue, agriculture, tribal development, panchayati raj and science and technology; the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, being the Head of Forest Force; and the Chief Wild Life Warden. The Principal Secretary in charge of the Forest Department is Member Secretary, and the State Government appoints an officer not below the rank of Chief Conservator of Forests as Chief Executive Officer.

The steering committee, section 11(2), is chaired by the Chief Secretary and adds the Nodal Officer under the 1980 Act, the head of the regional office of the Ministry, the Nodal Officer of the State Forest Development Agency, and an expert on tribal matters or a representative of tribal communities appointed by the State Government.

The executive committee, section 11(3), is chaired by the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, and its membership is the one to remember: besides officers and departmental representatives, it includes two eminent non-government organisations, two representatives of district level Panchayati Raj Institutions, and an expert on tribal matters or a representative of a tribal community, all appointed by the State Government.

That is the only place in either Act where the people who live in the forest appear, and an answer on participation should say so and say what it is worth: three appointed seats on the committee that prepares the plan, out of a membership of about fifteen, on a body whose plan must then be approved by the steering committee and by the executive committee of the National Authority.