Question : Funds for National Afforestation Programme

(a) whether Central Government has given assistance to States under National Mission for Green India Scheme/ National Afforestation Programme and if so, the details and the criteria fixed for such assistance under the said scheme along with the amount of funds proposed to be provided;
(b) the details of the annual work programme of various States particularly of Maharashtra during each of the last three year;
(c) the details of the funds allocated, released and utilized by various States under the said programme particularly of Maharashtra and Odisha;
(d) whether 2nd installment of assistance under National Afforestation Programme (NAP) scheme for the year 2020-21, 2021-22 for work programme is pending, if so, the details thereof, State-wise particularly of Maharashtra and Odisha;
(e) the time by which pending assistance will be released to various States; and
(f) whether the Central Government has shared any information or guidelines for running afforestation programmes in the country particularly with Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan, if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT, FOREST AND CLIMATE CHANGE
(SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

(a) to (f) The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has given Central assistance to the States/Union Territories under Centrally Sponsored Schemes namely National Mission for a Green India (GIM), National Afforestation Programme (NAP) for plantation activities in the forest and non-forest areas. The Schemes are demand driven and the Annual work programme submitted by the States/UTs is approved as per the Scheme Guidelines and budget availability under the schemes. The year-wise details of budgetary allocations and expenditure of NAP and GIM during last three years and current year are as under:
(Amount in Rupees in crore)
Year 2018-2019 2019-2020 2020-2021 2021-2022
Budget Allocated 176.94 193.60 160.00 220.00
Expenditure 176.73 193.63 158.04 213.18.*
* Expenditure as on 24th March, 2022

The Ministry has merged NAP into GIM so that the overall greening efforts are augmented. Accordingly, funds are released under NAP for activities approved in the previous years including the second installment of approved annual work programme. The proposal from Maharashtra for the year 2020-21 and 2021-22 could not be considered for approval due to non-submission of mandatory documents including Utilization Certificate for the funds already released/revalidated under NAP. The proposal from Odisha under NAP for the year 2021-22 has been approved and funds to the tune of Rs.7.77 crores, including previous year balance, have been released.

The State-wise details, including States of Maharashtra and Odisha, of approved cost of annual work programme, amount released and utilized under NAPduring last three years and current year are given in Annexure I. The State-wise details, including states of Maharashtra and Odisha, of approved cost of annual work programme, funds released and utilized since 2015 under GIM is given in Annexure II.

The Ministry also promotes tree plantation/afforestation as people’s movement through School Nursery Yojana and Nagar Van Yojana. Tree plantation/afforestation being the multi-departmental effort, taken up cross sector by various departments of the Centre and State Governments, Non-Government Organizations, civil society, corporate bodies etc. The guidelines of the schemes implemented by the Ministry and several advisories for involvement of people in various plantation programmes especially on occasions like Van Mahotsav, World Environment Day, World Forestry Day etc. have been shared with the States/UTs including Delhi, Haryana and Rajasthan.


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