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Plantation Blues

Plantation Blues

Author: Srawan Shukla
Publication: Tehelka
Date: November 9 2008
URL: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne081108Plantation_Blues.asp

Introduction: A scam has destroyed a plan to make arid Bundelkhand bloom

Chronically Parched Bundelkhand, drought-dry for nearly half a decade, could have done with some hope this year, particularly after a surprise season of record rain. And hope indeed seemed on the way when the Mayawati government announced an ambitious project that aimed to see a hundred million saplings planted in two months across the region's seven - Jhansi, Jalaun, Banda, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Hamirpur and Mahoba - to balance an ecology dominated by dry, deciduous forests.

Chief Secretary Atul Kumar Gupta's July 1 Green Bundelkhand order (no 970/14-5/2008) envisaged a comprehensive plan. The forest department was to map plantation areas with Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) technology to better monitor climate and ecological changes. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was dovetailed into the mega drive to provide work to Bundelkhand's many belowpoverty- line villages. With a budget of Rs 409.07 crore, including Rs 218.56 crore from the NREGS, the planting of 90 million saplings was fanned out over seven government departments - forest, gram panchayat, horticulture, public works, irrigation, power and local bodies - while villagers and NGOs were to be responsible for the remaining 10 million.

Sadly, the drive, which began on July 15 under forest department supervision, was at best half-hearted from the start. "No effort was made to test soil quality to determine which saplings would suit the region's climate. The topography of the Bundelkhand region is such that only seed sowing and germination would ensure success, which tree plantation can't," points out activist Arudhanti Dhuru. Saplings were brought at random from distant districts and neighbouring states; many were bought from private nurseries against government rules. As per Forest Manual guidelines, transported saplings need at least 20 days' rest before replantation; the Green Bundelkhand saplings were planted on arrival. Thousands dried up on reaching their destination. Several lakh were rejected because they did not match the Forest Manual size and height standards. With replacing them a monumental task, local authorities took the easy way out and planted nearly 30 to 40 percent of the project's saplings on paper alone. But even fudging the books on a grand scale could only notch up achievement figures of no more than 76 percent of the target, leaving a shortfall of over 20 million saplings. The scheme was then hurriedly closed.

The scam would perhaps have escaped notice had it not been for NGOs, social audit teams and rights activists in the region who blew the whistle on irregularities in payment of NREGS wages to hundreds who had worked on the drive. The Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee lost no time making political capital of the issue and Mayawati was, ultimately, forced to order a high-level probe, headed by Principal Secretary VS Pandey, who is himself under a CBI investigation. The politics of the matter will take their own course, but, as TEHELKA discovered while travelling through Mahoba, Chitrakoot, Banda and Hamirpur, the corruption has been of almost tragic proportions. Among its most grievous consequences is the misappropriation of NREGS funds to the tune of over Rs 200 crore. Most departments contracted the work out to forest mafias, who paid workers as little as Re 1 for each sapling planted. Naturally, NREGS job card holders were kept away from the project as it would have been necessary to pay them the mandatory Rs 100. NREGS funds, however, continued to be withdrawn. Such NREGS workers as were employed were either paid at half-wages or not at all. Their job cards would be forcibly taken from them to be filled in fake entries. Thus, in about 400 villages in Lalitpur, the job cards of hundreds of NREGS workers show that they worked for between 40 and 60 days on the plantation project, while they were paid for as little as 15 days. According to NGO findings, the scam in Lalitpur alone is to the tune of Rs 10-15 crore. "If their job cards are not corrected, it may wreak havoc as the workers would not only lose wages but also mandays as guaranteed under the NREGA," says Sanjay Singh, coconvenor of the Bundelkhand Apada Niwarak Manch (BANM), one of the first NGOs to alert the government to the scam. Similar complaints were received from other districts. Asked to explain where, in his view, the project went wrong, Singh says, "One lacuna was in entrusting tree plantation to departments which had no technical knowhow and expertise in the matter. They contracted the work to forest mafias, fixing quotas to achieve targets without ensuring the availability of land and saplings."

OTHER IRREGULARITIES abound. Forest Manual standards were not followed at most sites. Saplings that were to have been planted in 1.5x1.5x1.5 ft pits were found set in pits no deeper than nine inches or less. Barring a few locations, no fencing was erected to guard against grazing animals. The forest department also appears to have demarcated plantation lands in inaccessibly dense forest areas to assist, it would seem, in the fabrication of better on-paper results. "They planted saplings at the beginning of the forest and let the rest be," claims Sushil Khebaria, a social audit team member. "It was difficult to achieve targets in such little time," rues Sanjay Sharma, Forest Officer, Panwari block in Mahoba.

Ironically, the irregularities took place even after Chief Secretary put in place a three-tier monitoring system by independent NGOs from day one. When the plantation swindle became apparent, the BANM conducted surveys at 75 plantation sites to which the monitoring NGOs had, for a hefty fee, given the all-clear; its findings contradicted all the forest and other departments' tall claims.

All was not lost on the plantation drive, however. The forest department has done good work at Bharatpur in Chitrakoot and at a few other sites in Jhansi and Lalitpur. It has also taken care to plant the best saplings along the roads, evidently with an eye to the visits of buraucrats and the VVIPs.

Though the Nodal Officer, Manoj Singh, Commissioner Rural Development, denies the charges, the department has sent an 11-member team to assess the situation. "Action will be taken and many heads will roll once the inquiry is completed," a senior department officer assured TEHELKA. But the many glaring irregularities can point only to a nexus between the area's block development officers, gram pradhans and forest officers. In Mahoba's Mahobakant area, for instance, much of the plantation area chosen has been previously earmarked as pasture. "Where will our animals graze now?" asks village resident Kasim Ali. Not only this, private agricultural lands were appropriated for the plantation without even seeking the owners' consent. Gram panchayat members who tried to protest allege that they were threatened with dire consequences.

Now that the Mayawati government has ordered a high-level probe into the scam, those involved are running for cover. NGOs allege that guilty officials have taken to providing random verification figures to justify the on-paper figures. They also fear that the Pandy Committee's report is likely to be swept under the carpet - with the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, Mayawati would not want to give the Congress a handle to discredit her government with.

Whatever the outcome of the report, this drought-prone region has lost a golden opportunity to increase its forest cover. Given its mounting farmer suicides, mass migration and the starvation deaths that the state will not ackno - wledge, there is barely a worse turn Bundelkhand could have been dealt.

- srawan@tehelka.com


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