New Delhi, Mar 19 (PTI) The Uttarakhand government on Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that majority of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds were spent on forestation activities and preservation.
The state government, however, said certain amount was used by forest department officials for furniture at their homes aside from an iPhone worth Rs 53,000 and two laptops.
It assured departmental action against the erring officials.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and Augustine George Masih took note of the affidavit filed by the state’s chief secretary and proposed not to proceed any further in the matter.
“We find that deviations, if any, are trivial in nature,” the bench said.
The apex court on March 5 took exception to the alleged misuse of CAMPA funds by the state to purchase laptops, iPhones, fridges among other items and directed the chief secretary to file an affidavit.
According to a report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), there were irregularities in the utilisation of CAMPA funds and a huge amount was allegedly spent on inadmissible items, including iPhones, laptops, fridges, coolers, stationary aside from renovation of buildings.
On Wednesday, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for Uttarakhand government, said the total amount of CAMPA funds was Rs 753.56 crore and as per the report, 1.8 per cent was allegedly utilised wrongly.
“It is not meant to be for iPhones,” Justice Gavai said.
Mehta gave details of the expenditures made and said as a permissible activity, 18 cell phones worth Rs 7,000 each were purchased for enhancing communications for forest-related activities, including survey mapping and forest fire control.
“The iPhone was purchased for whom?” Justice Gavai asked.
Mehta said it must be for an official.
Money from CAMPA funds could not have been used for this purpose, he added.
The solicitor general said funds being spent on afforestation festival “Harela” leading to the plantation of seven lakh saplings in the state.
“Not only plantation. Plantation as well as public events — 560 public events,” Justice Gavai said.
Mehta said public events aimed at spreading awareness on the need for plantation.
When he said some amount was also spent on stationery, the bench asked, “Your state is that poor that it can’t provide amount for this?” Mehta said the amount was used for dry rations in Rajaji Tiger Reserve and items like “Chana” and “Gud” (jaggery) were procured for the purpose of dousing forest fire.
On the purchase of furniture, Mehta said, the amount was spent on tents for fire and forest officials in addition to patrolling cars, anti-poaching camps, among others.
He said Rs 66 lakh was spent for forest office renovations as some of them were in dilapidated condition.
“But some of the amount is used by forest officials for their home furniture,” he said.
Before the apex court took note of the matter, Mehta said, the state had already initiated appropriate departmental action.
He said though the expenditure for the construction of tiger safari was not an illegal expenditure, it ought not have been made from the CAMPA funds.
On the issue of depositing interest on balances available under the State Compensatory Afforestation Fund (SCAF) for 2019-2020 to 2021-2022, he said after the Centre had notified the interest rate, the state deposited it.
The bench noted that perusal of the affidavit revealed that the “amount spent were on the activities which are directly or indirectly connected to forestation and/or preservation of the forests”.
The bench asked the state to ensure no deviations were made from the CAMPA funds.
On March 5, the CAG report on functioning of CAMPA for Uttrakhand covering the period between 2019-2022 was brought to the apex court’s notice. PTI ABA AMK
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.