New Delhi: With urbanisation and other developmental activities posing a threat to environment, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and state ministers will take stock of policies and programmes concerning environmental and wildlife protection next week.
The one-day conference on Tuesday, in which state Forest and Environment ministers will participate, seeks to forge enhanced synergies between the efforts of central and state governments for effective implementation of policies and programmes in this regard.
"The existing hiatus between the environmental and forestry laws and their implementation in the country is a matter of concern.
"The increasing urbanization along with rapid growth in industrial infrastructure and transportation sectors has resulted in new pressures on ecosystems," according to an official statement here.
The Conference, organised by the Environment Ministry, will deliberate upon various agendas including monitoring compliance with environmental and forestry-related laws and regulations and road map for institution building.
"Time bound strategic approach to improve enforcement of and compliance with prescribed regulations, strengthening existing institutional frame work at both national and state level and review of the functioning and capacity of State Pollution Control Boards will be discussed threadbare," the
statement added.
Besides, river cleaning, setting up of empowered State River Conservation Authorities, strategies for increasing forest cover and enhancing synergies between Green India Mission, National Afforestation Programme and CAMPA Funds will also be discussed by the participants.
Two interactive sessions have been organised on Monday prior to the National Conference.
The first working session will be on forests and wildlife issues where PCCFs, Chief Wildlife wardens and forest officers will participate. The second session will deal with pollution control matters. Various presentations will be made
and discussions will be held during the sessions, the
statement said.
Bureau Report
