 bill no 122  of  2009 the  forest (conservation) amendment  bill,  2009 byshri hansraj gangaram ahir, mp a bill further to amend the forest (conservation) act, 1980be  it enacted by parliament in the sixtieth year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the forest (conservation) amendment act, 2009short title and commencement   (2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint569 of 19802 after section 3b of the forest (conservation) act, 1980, the following section shall be inserted, namely:—insertion of new section 3c10"3c notwithstanding anything contained in sections 2 and 3, when a forest land or any part thereof, measuring not more than forty hectares, is required for any work relating to irrigation or mining, the clearance for the deforestation of the forest land may be given by the district collector in whose jurisdiction the forest area falls:clearance for deforestation for irrigation/ mining projects by district collectorprovided that a list of all such cases of deforestation under the provisions of this section shall be furnished to the union ministry of environment and forests for information and record at the end of every year" statement of objects and reasonsthe forest (conservation) act, 1980 puts certain restrictions on the clearance of the forest land for non-forest purposes though section 2 of the act lists certain exceptions to this rule these exceptions do not include irrigation projects needed for the betterment of farmers or mining related activities due to the restrictions, farmers are finding it difficult to have sufficient water for their fields the foodgrain production is going down it has resulted in increasing incidence of malnutrition, starvation and suicide among farmers on the other hand, the farmers living in non-forest areas do not suffer any such restriction irrigation projects can easily be implemented there to remove this discrimination, it can be provided that irrigation projects in forest areas, covering an area of  not more than 40 hectares, can be cleared at the level of district collector it will not only ensure quick disposal of irrigation projects but the transparency will also be maintained such a step will prove to be immensely helpful for farmers and their standard of  living will also be improvedhence this billnew delhi;hansraj gangaram ahirnovember 5, 2009———— a billfurther to amend the forest (conservation) act, 1980————(shri hansraj gangaram ahir, mp)gmgipmrnd—5026ls(s5)—08-12-2009