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| Forest Ministry in shambles; Guards, foresters enjoying plum postings | | Hierarchy makes no sense! | | Syed Junaid hashmi
Jammu, Sept 18: Forest Minister Mian Altaf may swear of being honest and sincere but his Ministry is in complete shambles and department administratively utterly ruined and devastated.
Data available online on the website of State Forest Ministry indicates that 70 percent of the officers have been assigned posts above their own cadre. Some are working two to three steps ahead of their positions. Almost 75 percent of the Range Officers-Grade 1 are working above their posts as Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs). Most of the divisions are headed by them.
Out of 35 DDR trained forest officers, 28 are working on positions much above their official position in the department. They have been assigned tasks which are far-higher then the positions on which they should have been working normally. Sources said that most of these DDR foresters have direct liaison with Ministers personnel staff and others Ministers of the State Cabinet.
The department on the instructions of the officials of Ministry has been giving preference to Forest Guards, Foresters and Range Officers while issuing transfer and posting orders. Fresh KFS and IFS officers from outside the state are the rejected lot since the department does not want their services on any important position. Ministry has posted most of them in the Forest Protection Force (FPF) with few fortunate ones enjoying some important positions.
These fortunate ones who have managed prize postings despite being direct IFS and KFS, according to sources have used their political as well as social connections. These include relatives of some Congress and National Conference (NC) leaders. Of the unfortunate ones working as Assistant Conservator Forest (ACF), Naresh Majotra has been posted as ACF State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Ashwani Kumar as ACF CAMPA, Munish Bhardwaj as ACF CAMPA cell, Mohinder Singh as ACF Chenab circle, Shamma Roohi and Rajan Singh are working as ACF in the PCCF office.
A number of other SFS officers are also working on ordinary posts. Such is the attitude of Ministry and department towards the direct recruits that they have begun to look for greener pastures outside the state. They are appalled that a number of Foresters are working either as Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) or Deputy Director and in some cases even as Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs). They include Syed Anwar Aftab Shah, Javed Iqbal Sheikh, Amrik Singh, Muzaffar Jan Bazaz, Mehboob Ali, Ghulam Hassan Rafiqi, Dharminder Sharma and Kuldeep Singh.
According to sources in the department, all these officers are essentially Foresters but are working on posts way ahead of them. They are even bosses of IFS and SFS officers in some cases. Assistant Conservator Forest (ACF) Qaim-ud-Din Malik who was until recently DFO in the seed division has been posted as Incharge Regional Director (RD) Environment and Remote Sensing Department. Malik is working on a post two steps ahead of his current position.
Another favourite of Forest Ministry Qamar Din who is essentially ACF has been assigned the charge of Conservator of Forest (CF) Agrostology. DDR Foresters Anil Kumar Sharma and Kuldeep Singh are working as Project Officers of Thein Dam DD-1 and DD-2 respectively. IWDP born Harinder Singh is working as Range officer in Range no.2. Shurti Sushil is working as Incharge Range Officer alongwith Timber Passing Officer Hitashi Sharma. Another DDR Forester Khursheed Maqbool is working as DFO of Statistics Forest Division. DFO Resource Survey Division Jammu Mohammed Ayub is essentially a DDR Forester but has been assigned the post of Incharge Range Officer and is working as DFO.
Irony is that Harmohinder Singh is direct recruit IFS officer working as DFO in the Research Division of Jammu. His counterpart in Srinagar is a social forestry borne Officer Jalil Reyaz Banday while DDR Forester Muzaffar Jan Bazaz is DFO of Seed Division Srinagar and his counterpart in Jammu is Ifat Ara, an Incharge Range Officer, Grade-1. The situation is unlikely to change till the government does not get serious with restoring dignity of this vital department, said a retired forest officer. |
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