This was revealed by minister for environment and forest Jayanthi Natarajan to the members at the recently-held standing committee meeting of National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). Although Natarajan did not respond to a mail sent to her on the issue, members attending the meeting were informed about the move when the issue figured in the Delhi meeting. "Now the government is not merging all the three schemes," Natarajan is learnt to have told the NBWL.
TOI on September 29, had reported that merger of three schemes would hit tigers hard. The move was strongly opposed by all nine members of NBWL. The NBWL is the highest body to decide on all wildlife issues.
The NBWL members have thanked Natarajan and plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia for showing great concern towards the serious implications of the merger of the three schemes.
A subcommittee headed by BK Chaturvedi was set by the planning commission to restructure the CSS. Chaturvedi, who is a member of the planning commission, had discussed the issue with the MoEF on July 29, 2011. The committee's brief was to find ways to enhance flexibility, scale and efficiency of the scheme. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN, Nagpur.
