Resolution No. 5244 of
8.11.1990
The protected forests of Bihar, which are close to villages, are
facing increasing pressures from growing human and livestock population. It is necessary
to rehabilitate these forests and increase their productivity. After serious deliberations
the Government has reached the conclusion that the management and protection of forests
close to villages must be done with the cooperation of the local village people. This is
also in line with the National Forest Policy.
The Government therefore resolves that village Forest Management
and Protection Societies be organised in villages falling within forest areas. The
Societies will be formulated in the following manner.
Pramandal offer will hold a General Body Meeting in the selected
village or group of villages in which all adult residents may participate. The quorum for
this meeting will be 50 per cent of the adult population.
The concerned forest officer will act as
Co-ordinator-cum-Secretary of the meeting.
The General Body meeting will set up a village Forest Management
and Protection Society in each village. One person from each family will be a member of
the Society. Hereafter the Village Forest Management and Protection Society be referred to
as the "Society".
The society will set up a Managing committee for each village or
group of villages.
Members of the Managing Committee will include : The mukhya,
teacher, sarpanch, traditional pradhan, voluntary agencies and representatives of such
people (men and women) who are headloaders of otherwise dependent on forests. The
constitution of the Managing Committee will be as follows: one chairman, one
coordinator-cum-member-secretary, one mukhya, one ex-mukhya, one sarpanch, two
Munda/manaki/Majhi/Mahto/Pahan, two adivasi, one harijan, one teacher and three women.
Membership should be a minimum of 15 people and maximum of 18 and should have a minimum of
3 and a maximum of 5 women.
The concerned Vanpal will be the Honorary coordinator – cum
– Member – Secretary.
The quorum for the meeting of the Managing Committee will be
achieved when at least 10 members are present.
The duties and responsibilities of the Society are as follows :
The society will meet once in six months and will summarize the
working of the Managing Committee and decide the direction and policies to be followed.
Every member of the society will attend to forest management and
protection and will inform forest officials of those indulging in illegal activities. They
will hold discussions on the usefulness of forests and will prevent depletion of the
forests.
The society members will keep an eye on the functioning of the
managing committee and inform forest officials in case any member does not perform
correctly. If necessary this issue can also be brought up in meetings of the society.
Members of the society will actively assist forest officials to
arrest and take legal action against any person committing offences in the forest area.
If the actions of any members of the society or managing
committee go against forest protection or village development, the members of the society
can adopt resolutions against such persons, cancel their membership and take local action
against them.
The term of the managing committee will be of two years after
which it will automatically be dissolved and similarly reconstituted for the next two
years. The duties and responsibilities of the managing committee are as follows:
It will select its own Chairman
It will meet once a month
The date and venue of each meeting will be decided by the
Member-Secretary.
Deliberations on forest protection and development will take
place in the meetings. For the efficient functioning of the committee the Principal Chief
Conservator of Forest will issue orders which will be binding on the managing committee.
These will form the basis for the activities of the committee. In each meeting a summary
of implementation of planned activities will be made. Short-comings will be identified and
solutions found.
The committee will actively contribute to forest development and
protection.
It will set rules relating to forests and forest dwellers.
It will take not of persons violating these rules and inform
forest officials accordingly.
Members will assist the forest officials in appointing
labourers, so that landless, unemployed and poor persons may be employed.
Members will assist the forest officials to arrest and take
legal action against offenders.
The committee will assist forest officials in the harvesting and
distribution of forest produce.
The initial cost of forest development activities will be borne
by the Government.
Forest Management will take place as follows :
Management will take place according to the management plan.
The management plan will be drawn up by the forest pramandal
officials taking the opinion and suggestions of the society, which will be approved by the
concerned Conservator of Forests.
Village people will be allowed to remove dry branches, leaves
and grass from the forest free of charge.
After harvesting all available forest produce will be given to
the managing committee on specific terms.
The Pramandal Commissioner and Chief Conservator of Forests
(Management and Protection) will decide on the terms. At this time they will take care
that the interest and motivation of the village people is maintained.
The managing committee will determine the rightful owners of the
harvested forest produce keeping in mind the quantities availability and its own needs.
The village people are not permitted to sell the produce.
The managing committee will provide the forest produce to the
village people at market prices.
Income earned from such sales will be divided into three shares.
One share will be deposited as village development fund, one as
forest development fund and third in the working fund.
The forest and Environment Department, Government of Bihar, will
issue orders on the utilisation and accounts procedures to be followed in respect of
points 16 & 17.
Letter No. B.L.D. 36/93 4578 FE
GOVERNMENT OF BIHAR
Forest and Environment Department
Patna, Date : 27th Aug. 1993
Sub. : Rehabilitation of degraded forest with people’s
participation; laying
down the accounts procedures.
On the above mentioned subject, as directed, the following
procedures are laid down, after the detailed investigation, under section 17, 18, 19 of
Forest and Environment Department assignment No. 5244 v.p. dated 8.11.90.
The amount received from harvesting and selling of coupe
earmarked for "Committee" shall be divided into three portions. One share shall
be deposited as ‘Gram Vikas Nidhi’ second as ‘Van Vikas Nidhi’ and
third as Karyakari Nidhi. Funds of ‘Gram vikas Nidhi’ and ‘Van Vikas
Nidhi’ shall be deposited in the local bank. The utilization of ‘Karyakari
Nidhi’ shall be done as directed by ‘Executive committee’ with the
agreement of members of the ‘Committee’. The amount shall be distributed
basically for the benefit of the members of the ‘Committee’.
The accounts of ‘Gram Vikas Nidhi’ shall be opened in
local nationalized bank/rural bank. The joint account will be in the name of member
secretary, executive committee (official of Vanpal rank of territorial section of FD) and
the chairman of the committee.
‘Gram Vikas Nidhi’ shall be used for various
development activities such as agricultural development, poultry, drainage, cottage
industry, etc and social security programmes like old age pension, in crisis such as
death, etc in the form of interest free loan. Gram Sabha shall issue the guidelines on the
above. Executive committee shall act in accordance with above guidelines. The money from
the account shall be withdrawn on the written direction of Executive committee and with
the agreement of committee.
The member secretary of the executive committee will send income
expenditure statement for every month to Range Officer (Territorial), who in turn will
send the same to Divisional Forest Officer (Territorial).
"Van Vikas Nidih" shall be managed by the secretary
and chairman of the executive committee. The committee shall submit the plan for
development of forest to the Range Officer. It shall be the responsibility of Range
Officer to guide the committee in its work. It will be responsibility of Range Officer to
examine the plan and give technical sanction. The sanctioned plan shall be returned to
secretary of the committee by divisional forest officer through the Range Officer.
The ‘committee’ shall get the sanctioned plan executed
under the supervision of the executive committee. The executive committee shall withdraw
and spend the money from "Van Vikas Nidhi" according to requirement, as per
sanctioned plan. It shall be the responsibility of executive committee to submit monthly
physical and financial progress report to the Range Officer who shall send the same to the
Divisional Forest Officer.
It shall be the responsibility to Divisional Forest Officer to
prepare a quarterly income-expenditure statement of each committee every year. The
statement will be made for April – June, July-September, October-December and
January-March.
The analysis of the above statement will be done by the
committee formed under the Chairmanship of Divisional Conservator of Forest in April,
July, October and January every year. The members of the committee shall be :
1. Divisional Conservator of Forest (Territorial) - Chairman
2. Forest Planning Officer - Member
3. Divisional Forest Officer (Plantation) - Member
4. Divisional Forest Officer (state commerce) - Member
5. Divisional Forest Officer (Territorial) - Member Sec.
If, on analysis of the above the committee finds the account of
any forest committee to be unsatisfactory, it shall have the right to issue show cause
notice and dissolve such committees after the enquiry.
The analysis of the above works will be done by conservator of
forest twice a year, i.e. in April and October. The conservator of Forest (Social Forestry
and Plantation), conservator of forest (State Commerce) and Conservator of Forest
(Territorial), shall participate in the analysis. The conservator of forest (Territorial)
will be member – secretary.
The Chief Conservator of Forest (Social Forestry) will review
once a year in the month of November at his level, and if there is a need for mid-course
correction, he will take action after getting directions from the Principal Chief
Conservator of Forest. The meeting will be attended by the Chief Conservator of Forest or,
in his absence, Deputy Conservator of Forest.
The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest will analyse the
income-expenditure statement of ‘Gram Vikas Nidhi’ and ‘Van Vikas
Nidhi’ for whole of the state once a year in the month of May at his level. All the
Chief Conservator of Forest - Chief Conservator of Forest (Development)/ Chief Conservator
of Forest (State commerce) / Chief Conservator of Forest (Social forestry) / Chief
Conservator of Forest (World food programme) – shall be members of the committee
formed by Principal Chief Conservator of Forest. The Principal Chief Conservator of Forest
will issue the necessary guidelines to all the concerned officials after the analysis.
Kindly ensure the compliance of the aforesaid decision and that
all the local officials / personnel be informed of the same.
Letter No. B.L.D.
36/93 4578 FE :
(Translation : SPWD)
