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It"s not just a matter of FAC anymore

the Supreme Court of India recently included the director-general of forests as a new member in its Central Empowered Committee (cec). The committee was constituted in 2002 to monitor cases related to forests and their diversion for non-forest use. The director-general of forests heads the Forest Advisory Committee (fac), a body under the Union environment ministry that grants clearances for diversion of forestland.

The move is being seen as a measure to bridge the gap between the two committees, which have had several differences. But critics say it will end up diluting cec's role. "cec takes up a lot of forest-related issues after they are cleared by fac. The person responsible for clearances will examine appeals as a member of cec, which means he will get to hear appeals against the cases that he has cleared as the head of fac. Clearly, it's an issue,' says Kanchi Kohli, member of Kalpvriksh, an environmental action group in Delhi.

Since late 2006, there have been several disputes between cec and the environment ministry over fac's constitution. The ministry had refused to comply with cec's suggestions on members to be included in fac (see

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