Dehradun, May 20 -- Uttarakhand government on Monday sought appropriate compensation in accordance with the spirit of "environmental federalism" in view of the "eco-service cost" of Uttarakhand from the 16th Finance Commission (FC), urging it to increase the weight prescribed for "forest and ecology" in Centre-state tax-sharing to 20% from 10% and in area category to 20% from 15% . The state government also requested that special grants should also be considered for the proper management and conservation of forests in the state. These requests were made by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday, in a meeting with the chairman of the 16th finance commission, Arvind Panagariya at the secretariat. "While on one hand, more expenditure has to be made for the conservation of forests, on the other hand, due to the prohibition of any other development activity in the forest area, 'eco service cost' also has to be borne. So I request for giving appropriate compensation in accordance with the spirit of 'Environmental Federalism', increasing the weight prescribed for forest cover in 'Tax-Transfer' by 20 % and giving special grant for proper management and conservation of forests in the state," the chief minister told the finance commission. The chief minister said that due to more than 70% of the total geographical area of the state being covered with forests, two major challenges are also being faced. Dhami also said that due to the rules implemented as a result of declaring Ganga as a national river, the possibilities of hydroelectric power generation in Uttarakhand have become limited. "The hydroelectric sector is not able to make the expected contribution to the economy due to various reasons, due to which there is a huge loss in the field of revenue as well as employment. I also urged GC to determine the amount of compensation for the affected projects and the related mechanism", he said. Dhami said, after the end of the 'Industrial Concessionary Package' in 2010, the state government is facing difficulty in the light of the 'locational disadvantage'. "Due to difficult geographical conditions and other practical difficulties, the participation of private sector in important sectors like education and health is very limited in the hilly areas of the state. Due to this, special budget provisions have to be made for these sectors", he said. The chief minister said that Uttarakhand is a state highly sensitive to natural disasters. "The state needs continuous financial support to effectively deal with these disasters and for relief and rehabilitation work. The chief minister requested the finance commission to consider providing special grants for these special efforts of water conservation. The share of Uttarakhand in the Centre-State fund sharing is determined by the recommendations of the finance commission, which allocates a portion of the central taxes to each state based on specific criteria....