Boostrapping : EAS.12 - EAS over Forest Woods
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Proposed administrative procedure - EAS.12
Equal   Allowance   System   over   Forest   Woods

Purpose
: To reduce nexusproness in the process of allocating forest wood AND to ensure that citizens get equitable royalty over forest woods.

Pre-requiste readings :
  • EAS.01 -- Equal Allowance System over Underground Water
  • RLPP.
  • EAS.05 -- Equal Allowance System over Coal

      Contents

    1. Background
    2. Similarity with EAS.05
    3. Overview of EAS.12
    4. Advantages of EAS.12
    5. Draft of the act to create procedure EAS.12


    Background

    The purpose is to reduce poverty. How? By ensuring that every citizen gets equitable share in the "rent" or "deemed rent" of natural resource. How? I have proposed several laws to enable that. EAS.12 is one of these proposed laws.



    Similarity with EAS.05

    EAS.12 is very much similar to EAS.05. I strongly request the reader to read the web page related to EAS.05 before reading this web page.



    Overview of EAS.12

    Following are the main points EAS.12 :

    1. Transfer of forests : The Center shall handover ownership of ALL forests to the States.

    2. Appointing senior officers : The Chief Minister will appoint Forest Minister (as today). For each district, the Minister will appoint a Registrar, a Forest Guard and a Forest Plotting Officer for that district. One person may manage more than one district. If that district has no forests etc, these positions may be left vacant for those districts.

    3. The Registrar will issue a serial number for any person or company who wishes to cut forests, or buy forest woods in bulk.

    4. Making forests' plots' boundaries : The Plotting Officer will demark the various plots' boundaries in the district and will decide the lease (in number of years) for each plot, and amount of wood that may be cut from that plot.

      eg say a district has sandlewood forest. Then the local Plotting Officer may demark one plot, and set it for "lease of 2 years, 100 tons wood per month may be cut".

    5. Bidding for forest plots : A company interested in leasing forest plots can file the bids PUBLICLY before Registrar by stating the fraction of wood the company will keep for itself and fraction of wood it would hand over to citizenry.

    6. Allocating forest plots : The Forest Guard will give the forest plot to the company which bids the least fraction for itself.

    7. Allocation of stone :
      1. A citizen using RLPP can give his monthly Forest Wood Allowance to any company which wants to buy forest wood from the forest in the State.

      2. On the plot, the wood cutting company will divide the woods extracted into several lots. Say the company has promised to keep 20% of the wood and give 80% to the citizenry. The Forest Guard will let the Allowance owning companies take 80% of the lots and give the remaining 20% of the lots to the wood cutting company. [For actual distribution of lots, please see "A makes parts, B selects" method in EAS.05]

    8. Citizens' control over senior officers : The citizens can change Plotting Officer, Forest Gaurd and Registrar using RLPP.

    9. Citizens' control over tree cutting companies : The citizens can also change/expel tree cutting companies using RLPP.



    Advantages of EAS.12
      So overall, this Equal Allowance System is similar to Equal Allowance System over Ores. As per the initial agreement, the wood-cutting companies can keep certain amount of wood with itself and sell it. The remain wood would go to the companies who have Allowances purchased from the citizens.

      Thus the economic benefit of wood-cutting will get equitably divided amongst the citizens.

    1. EAS.12 reduces poverty. How? A square foot of marble tile would cost Rs 20 to Rs 50 per sqft. A granite tile would cost Rs 50 to Rs 150 in the retail market. Significant chunk of granite comes from the state of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. How much royalty do the Karnataka or Tamil Nadu Governments get from these stones that Rs 50 to Rs 150 piece? Hardly Rs. 2 to Rs 3. Of which citizens would NOT get even half of it. However, EAS.12 ensures that citizens get maximal value of profits from stones.

    2. It reduces nexusproneness in stone mining industry and thus improves its efficiency.

    3. EAS.12 reduces stone theft. How? Suppose the citizens realize that about 20% - 40% of the stone is being stolen. This means that the stone-buyers get less stone and thus give lesser value for their Allowances. In other words, if the Allowances are fetching Rs. 100 per month, stopping the theft would increase the value to Rs. 120 - Rs. 140. Given the monetary benefit, most citizens will start investigating the issue. And if the rumor of theft is correct, most citizens would Approve someone else for the position of the Mine Guard using RLPP. In fact, the fear of prmot replacement alone would ensure Mine Guard’s integrity, and thus low theft.


    Maintaining Forests

    The maintaince of forests has NOTHING to do with EAS.12. The following procedures, which may be used to maintian the forest, are NOT part of EAS.12 :
    1. The Forest Minister will appoint one Forest Officer for every district. One person may hold post for more than one district. The citizens may expel/fine using Jury Trial or expel/replace him using RLPP.

    2. The Forest Officer may tax wood buyers at the rate approved by the District Panchayat.

    3. The Forest Officer may tax wood buyers at the rate approved by the District Panchayat.

    4. The Forest Officer can hie the necessary staff/contractors to maintain the forests.



    Draft of the act to create procedure EAS.12

    Two laws needed to be passed for to enact EAS.12, one in Parliament and another at State level. I have drafted the texts for both. To see the drafts, please click here.

         Now citizens can ask MPs/MLAs to pass these Acts. But IMO, it will be wiser for citizens to first enact procedure LM.02 and LM.03, and then use LM.02-03 to pass this EAS.12 drafts WITHOUT any help from MPs and MLAs. To know about procedure LM.02, please click here and to know about procedure LM.03, please click here.



    If you have any other question, please mail it to MehtaRahulC@yahoo.com. Thousand thanks in advance.





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