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Locals unhappy with Chure conservation program

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By No Author
ILAM, June 30: President Chure Conservation Program (PCCP), initiated by the government three years ago to protect the Chure region, has failed to serve its purpose in Ilam district of eastern Nepal.

PCCP, which was launched as a special initiative of President Ram Baran Yadav, has not been effective in 14 VDCs in the district that fall within the Chure belt in lack of proper coordination with concerned stakeholders and participation of locals.

The program, being implemented with a budget over Rs 10 million, aims to protect the fragile ecosystem of the Chure area.As continuing landslides threaten to jeopardize the area's ecology, stakeholders say despite heavy spending under the PCCP no productive result has been achieved in the area so far. Even the implementing NGOs have not produced significant results, they said.

Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation has handed over the budget for implementing programs under the PCCP to some NGOs directly. As budgets to such organizations are usually released at the eleventh hour, they are spent in haste, resulting in poor results, according to local stakeholders.

But programs implemented through NGOs do not necessarily produce intended results.

For instance, PCCP had entrusted Juntara Samajik Sanstha with implementing various projects in 14 VDCs of Ilam. But Juntara gave the responsibility to another NGO named Samajik Sewa Tatha Batabaran Sanrakshan Manch.

Usually, such organizations spend more money on administrative costs rather than on actual project works

Meanwhile, Bijendra Krishna Singh, chief of district soil conservation office, said that the PCCP is mainly focused on distributing gabion wires, infrastructure construction, and plantation campaign.

Likewise, Sunil Kumar Singh, assistant forest officer of District Forest Office, claimed that the outcomes of the PCCP are effective in conserving Chure belt.

However, local leaders have expressed their dissatisfaction with PCCP.

"PCCP has failed to live up to the expectations," said Dhruva Shrestha, local leader from Danabari VDC, who is also the chairperson of Community Forest Users' Federation, Ilam.



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