PANAJI
The Goa government has once again come under the radar of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), with the State-level committees responsible for overseeing compensatory afforestation failing to meet even once during the last financial year despite repeated directions to follow the statutory schedule.
At a recent meeting convened to approve Goa’s Annual Action Plan, the National Authority pulled up the State government for failing to adhere to the provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016.
The lapse is particularly significant as the State CAMPA Executive Committee and Steering Committee are required to meet once every three months in a financial year. However, the records placed before the National Authority show that the two committees have been meeting only sporadically.
Since 2018-19, the Executive Committee has met only eight times, while the Steering Committee has met seven times. The Executive Committee, chaired by the Chief Secretary, met twice during a financial year only in 2019-20 and 2024-25. In most other years, it met just once, while it did not meet at all in 2018-19 and the last financial year.
The Steering Committee, headed by the Chief Principal Conservator of Forests, has also fallen considerably short of the statutory requirement, having held only seven meetings since 2018-19.
More seriously, the State CAMPA Governing Body, headed by the Chief Minister, has not held a single meeting since 2018-19, despite being required to meet twice every financial year.
The pattern has also drawn the attention of CAMPA authorities, with the CEO pointing out that States such as Goa were convening the Executive and Steering Committee meetings largely once a year, primarily for approving the Annual Plan of Operations (APO), while the Governing Body was not meeting at all.
The State had already been pulled up by the authority last year over the poor frequency of meetings. Despite this, neither the Executive Committee nor the Steering Committee met during the last financial year.
For the current financial year, the State has proposed one meeting each of the Executive Committee and Steering Committee, while no meeting of the Governing Body has been scheduled.
The Executive Council has now directed the State to strictly follow the CAF Act, 2016 and ensure regular meetings of the Governing Body, Executive Committee and Steering Committee.
