The Hindu : Strive towards becoming self-reliant, VSS told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 15, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Strive towards becoming self-reliant, VSS told

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI Nov. 14. C. Sivasankar Reddy, Chief Conservator of Forests and in-charge of the Joint Forest Management (JFM) project, on Thursday envisaged that in a span of five or six years the Vana Samrakshana Samithis (VSS) would become self-reliant. To achieve that he wanted them to grow plants bearing marketable forest produce in five to ten hectares of forestlands each.

Addressing the presidents and vice-presidents of 644 VSS units at the regional workshop as part of the AP Community Forest Management Project, encompassing Anantapur, Guntur, Kurnool and Tirupati circles, he said they had a bigger role in forest protection, that transforms into development of the fringe villages. When the VSS units had so far succeeded in providing green cover to 939 sq. km of forestland, he found no reason not to expect a better result in the second phase of the World Bank-funded project.

He said the current phase would cover some 5,000 VSS units in 14 districts of the State with an outlay of Rs. 630 crores to be spent in five years. On the social side, apart from rural development, women empowerment had been incorporated in the system as 50 per cent reservation had been provided for them. A woman volunteer had been appointed to look after every 20 units.

As the members themselves had to man the decision making aspects vis-a-vis micro-planning, he asked them to take into cognisance that the forest protection and village development are two sides of the same coin. Ensuring of the former would make the latter follow suit. Members were asked to take utmost care regarding the spending part, keeping in mind the principle that those units in agency areas could spend up to Rs.1 lakh, while those in non-agency areas were eligible to expend only up to Rs. 50,000.

The S.V. University Vice-Chancellor, P. Murali, who inaugurated the meet, lauded the project for being intended at forest management as well as poverty alleviation in rural areas. He favoured taking up of more water conservation works under `Neeru-Meeru'. P. K. Sharma, Conservator of Forests, Tirupati Wildlife Management circle presided.

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