DEHRADUN
: No announcement of
Green Bonus
for the Himalayan states in the Union budget on Friday has upset many observers of
Uttarakhand
which has over 71% forest cover in 38,000 square kilometers.
Coming down heavily on the lack of any financial provisions dedicated to the Himalayan state, environmentalist Anil Joshi said, “I see no seriousness — both at the central and state level — about the eco system as well as environment. The budget has overlooked the contribution of
Himalayas
which is the ecological capital of our country.”
Joshi told TOI that even though there are no scientific studies to quantify the environmental contribution of the Himalayas but “overlooking the contribution would be unwise.” “ The financial help given to Uttarakhand as per the criteria of the 14th Finance Commission is too less. Whether it is in air, water or oxygen, the contribution of the Himalayan mountain range can’t be forgotten.” said Joshi.
Ratan Aswal, a social activist, said, “The budget doesn’t have much for Himalayan states specially Uttarakhand which needs special budgetary attention for tackling migration, setting up civic waste systems and rural industry.” Aswal also said that the green bonus would have helped the Himalayan communities spread across the region. “Because of the vast forest cover, building big industries is impossible, so the green bonus would have helped in boosting livelihood of the Himalayan community,” said Aswal.
Echoing a similar opinion, political observer Udit Ghildiyal said: “Everyone had great expectations from the government regarding the Green Bonus but nothing has come out. The policy makers must not ignore the environmental cost which Uttarakhand is going to pay for the high-value infrastructure projects.”
Interestingly, senior officials of the state’s finance department were not surprised at no mention of the Green Bonus in the Union budget. “Ideally it is the mandate of finance commissioner to work out the special grants like green bonus to state. The finance commissioner (14th) has already fixed the weightage point (7.5) for forest cover in the state so right now nothing much can be done,” said a senior IAS officer, who did not wish to be identified.
Sunderlal Bahuguna
, noted environmentlist meanwhile told TOI, “People had lots of expectations from this government but it has fallen flat. Nothing came out for hill states in terms of environment. I think the Centre has expressed its stand through this budget that respective states have to take their own call on safeguarding their bio-diversity be it hills or rivers. Uttarakhandshould also understand this and act fast to conserve its environment.”
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