Disbursement and utilisation of State Fund

Save as otherwise provided in this Act, the monies available in a State Fund shall be disbursed and utilised in the following manner, namely:— (a) the money received for compensatory afforestation, additional compensatory afforestation, penal compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment plan and for any other site specific scheme may be used as per site-specific schemes submitted by the State along with the approved proposals for diversion of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 (69 of 1980); (b) the monies received towards net present value and penal net present value shall be used for artificial regeneration (plantation), assisted natural regeneration, forest management, forest protection, forest and wildlife related infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management, supply of wood and other forest produce saving devices and other allied activities in the manner as may be prescribed; (c) the interest accrued on funds available in a State Fund and the interest accrued on all monies collected by the State Governments, which has been placed under the ad hoc Authority and deposited in the nationalised banks, in compliance of the directions of the Supreme Court dated the 5th May, 2006, shall be used for conservation and development of forest and wildlife in the manner as may be prescribed; (d) all monies realised from the user agencies in accordance with the decision taken by the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wild Life constituted under section 5A of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 (35 of 1972) or the orders of the Supreme Court involving cases of diversion of forest land in protected areas shall form the corpus and the income therefrom shall be used exclusively for undertaking protection and conservation activities in protected areas of the State including facilitating voluntary relocation from such protected areas and in exceptional circumstance, a part of the corpus may also be used subject to prior approval of the National Authority; (e) ten per cent. of amount realised from the user agencies, which has been credited directly into the State Fund in a year shall be transferred to the National Fund to meet expenditure as provided in clause (b) of section 5; (f) the non-recurring and recurring expenditure for the management of a State Authority including the salary and allowances payable to its officers and other employees may be met from a part of the interest accrued on the amounts available in the State Fund, in the manner as may be prescribed; (g) in case of trans-boundary forestry or environmental implication of diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes in a particular State, if found expedient and necessary by the National Authority, it may, in consultation with the concerned Sate Authorities order that such sum as may be justified for reparation of the trans-boundary effects, be transferred to State Fund of such State or States; (h) State Authority shall release monies to agencies identified for execution of activities in pre-determined instalments as per the annual plan of operation finalised by steering committee of such State Authority and executive committee of the National Authority.