External Aid For Green Projects Set To Rise

There is likely to be a quantum jump in external assistance to Indian environment protection projects in the current fiscal. As a result, the outlay for schemes to be covered under external aid this year has been raised by Rs 143 crore. The outlay for externally aided projects in 1997-98 was Rs 173.91 crore. This year, 1998-99, it has been raised to Rs 317 crore.

The total plan outlay for the environment sector this year is of the order of Rs 704.09 crore, against Rs 440 crore in the previous year, a 60 per cent increase. Rs 317 crore worth of projects are expected to be funded by external aid agencies, while the remaining Rs 386.66 crore, will be funded by the government through the budgetary support.

According to the Union environment ministry's brochure on "125 days of the new government_ new programmes and initiatives," the environment protection and pollution control measures will get priority attention. The allocation for this is Rs 211 crore, a 70 per cent increase over last year's allocation. Other sectoral allocations are : National river conservation_Rs 191.70 crore, forest and wildlife_Rs 136.05 crore and the national afforestation and eco-development_Rs 92.35 crore.

Under these, Rs 84.73 crore has been earmarked for national river conservation directorate, Rs 56.51 crore for wildlife projects and Rs 50 crore as in the previous year for the Taj Protection Mission. Besides, Rs 25.25 crore has been earmarked for the India Management Capacity Building project and Rs 19.15 crore for the National Afforestation and Eco-development board. There are paltry allocations for schemes under Hazardous Substances Management Project _ Rs 5 crore and for environment impact assessment _ Rs 3.11 crore.