news details |
|
|
| Is State Forest Corporation burden on state exchequer? | | | Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 21: Contradictory to the statement issued by Forest Minister Jammu and Kashmir Government Mian Altaf regarding shortage of manpower in state forest department, Ministry of Forest has deputed its top officials on deputation to State Forest Corporation (SFC), the organization already battling for its survival on financial front.
Among the 13 posts of Chief General Manager and General Managers in SFC, at least 10 officials of Forest department assumes the charge on deputation against these 13 posts whereas only two General Managers from main SFC department namely Nisar Peerzada G M North SFC Kashmir and A K Sharma in charge G M East Doda circle are working against these posts while others are under the captivity of forest department officials.
Except the two, the other top SFC officials are nowhere in business. Those who are holding various charges on different posts of Chief General Managers/General Managers are all IFS officials including Vassu Yadav ( G M Administration), Brig Mohan Sharma (G M sale Jammu), M P Dogra (G M extraction west Circle Jammu), Nasir Hakeem (G M development), D L Zadoo (G M Vigilance and security), Shuja Haderie (G M south circle extraction Srinagar), Javeed Indrabi holds two charges (G M sale Srinagar/fair price circle Srinagar), J Frankoie (G M TNM) and Asgar Anayatulah (G M Project and Planning) where as G M HQ post is laying vacant.
State Forest Corporation was established in the year 1979 with the aim to utilize the forest resources and as per the need more than 3000 trained employees were appointed by the government for extraction of timber approximately 1.20 to 1.5 Corer CFT/annum. After its establishment, with the passage of time, SFC becomes profit earning venture for the state government and it was in the 1990 Supreme Court of India imposed ban for extraction of timber from forest and reduced the target of extraction by 50 % thus marking the beginning of losses to the SFC department.
Presently department is extracting on 40 lacs CFT/Annum, which is less than 1/3rd of target set at the time of establishment of the organization. Department not only suffers due to the SC order, but in peak militancy era, militant organizations like HM, HUJI and Jesh imposes ban on extraction/transportation of timber from forest as a result of which timber costs more than 6 billion rupees were burnt down by various militant groups in Jammu and Kashmir and mostly in Chenab region.
Due to implementation of several central sponsored schemes like MNREGA, the labor crises also hits the work progress of SFC as the department fails to purchase latest equipments used for extraction of timbers from forests for want of funds, as a result of which the department starts depending on forest contractors for its survival. SFC which was once considered as the backbone of the state government is facing hardships in arranging the monthly pay of its employees which amount to more than 7 Cr/month that too when most of the employees were sitting ideal to lack of work.
SFC employees are considered as trained and highly qualified staff in dealing forest related matter as per estimate more than 2600 employees in SFC are getting their salaries for no work. But on the other hand side top officials of forest department were running from pillar to post for clearing his deputation in SFC so that these officials could easily avoid the burn of work in Forest department. Honorable Minister in his press conference on Wednesday in Srinagar shows his apprehension about shortage of main power in all most all departments of Forest department and agreed that despite shortage of staff, forest department uses its best available resources in dealing with menace of forest smuggling. The problem of shortage of staff is not only with forest wing, but also within other allied department of Forest Department which includes Soil Conservation, Social Forestry, Wild Life and Forest Protection where almost entire staff is untrained officers.
It is not out of place to mention here that forest department requires man power/Staff strength to tackle the smuggling and stop the encroachments/Construction of structure on forest land for which the government has to make thousands of appointments of new staff, which is not possibly for the government in present financial crises. But despite availability of over 2000 surplus field staff in SFC, both Gazetted and Non- Gazetted and whose services can be utilized in other sister concern department to strengthen the shrinking Forest cover in the state, government turns blind eye towards engaging the ideally sit SFC employees . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
STOCK UPDATE |
|
|
 |
| BSE
Sensex |
 |
| NSE
Nifty |
|
|
| |
CRICKET UPDATE |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
