CAMPA bill

CAMPA bill
Enacted by Parliament of India
Date passed 3 May 2016
Date passed 28 July 2016
Status: In force

CAMPA Act or Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority bill is an Indian legislation that seeks to provide an appropriate institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in each State and Union Territory, to ensure expeditious utilization in efficient and transparent manner of amounts released in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose which would mitigate impact of diversion of such forest land.

History

In 2002, the Supreme Court of India observed that collected funds for afforestation were underutilized by the states and it ordered for centrally pooling of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Fund. The court had set up the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (National CAMPA) to manage the Fund. In 2009, states also had set up State CAMPAs that receive 10% of funds form National CAMPA to use for afforestation and forest conservation. However, in 2013, a CAG report identified that the funds continued to be underutilized. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill 2015 was introduced by the government in Lok Sabha on May 8, 2015 to regulate collected funds. The bill was sent for examination under a standing committee.[1] It was passed by Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2016.[2]

Purpose

The legislation established the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF).[3] The proposed legislation will also ensure expeditious utilization of accumulated unspent amounts available with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which presently is of the order of Rs. 39,000 crore, and fresh accrual of compensatory levies and interest on accumulated unspent balance, which will be of the order of approximately Rs. 6,000 crore per annum, in an efficient and transparent manner.[4][5]

Highlights

  • It seeks to establish the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
  • The payments into the funds include compensatory afforestation, NPV, reforestation and any project specific payments. The National Fund will get 10% of funds collected and the remaining 90% will go to respective State Fund.
  • The collected funds will be utilised for afforestation, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wild life protection and infrastructure development.
  • The bill also seeks to establish National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authorities to manage the funds.
  • The determination of NPV will be delegated to an expert committee constituted by the central government.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015". IASPOINT.
  2. ↑ "Bottleneck on fine print cleared, CAMPA Bill passes", The Indian Express, 29 July 2016
  3. ↑ "CAMPA Bill set to clear House; Govt, Cong reach compromise", The Indian Express, 21 July 2016
  4. ↑ "CAMPA: The manager of afforestation funds", The Indian Express, 25 May 2016
  5. ↑ "Din in Rajya Sabha delays CAMPA bill", India Today, 25 July 2016
  6. ↑ "PRS - Bill Track - The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015". www.prsindia.org.


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