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| 'DFOs, Rangers prefer civil secretariat over work' | | PC threatens to penalize J&K forest deptt, working plan nowhere in sight | |
Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, June 17: With Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) and Rangers spending most of their time loitering in the corridors of civil secretariat, Planning Commission has threatened to penalize Jammu and Kashmir forest department.
Sources in the forest department said that commission during one of its meeting recently held at New Delhi has taken serious exception to J&K's repeated lie of security situation not allowing them to formulate working plan for all the 30 forest divisions across the state. They have refused to buy the argument and told the state forest department pointedly to stop giving lame excuses for its inability to complete working plan of all the 30 divisions during the last two years.
Sources said that during the Commission's recent meeting with officials of Jammu and Kashmir forest department, it did not mince words while saying that state has failed to come up to the expectations of the 13th finance commission. They added that commission while referring to funds sanctioned under 13th finance commission said that these funds cannot be released until and unless the state does not come up with working plan for all the 26 divisions.
State government informed the commission that out of 26 forest divisions in the state working plan of only three has been finalized so far while adding that process for completion of working plan for other 23 divisions is on and would be completed in the next few months. After giving this assurance, sources said that state government sought release of funds sanctioned under 13th finance commission.
However, this did not suffice the members of planning commission. They told the state government categorically that only when working plans are finalized and submitted to the planning commission, forest department will get around Rs 100 crore special assistance for next three years alongside annual budgetary allocations. If it is not done, sources said that commission has threatened not to release this special assistance.
They further asked the state to stop referring to fragile security situation, which has now become thing of past. Shocked at the bitter words used by members of planning commission, senior officials of forest department returned home and immediately called up a meeting. Sources said that senior officials were shocked to learn about DFOs and Rangers spending most of their time loitering in the corridors of civil secretariat, pleading for choice postings and seeking transfer from their preset place of posting.
They were informed that all kinds of transfers and postings even those of the level of Rangers, Foresters and Guards are being done at the civil secretariat level. This is the reason why most of the DFOs, Rangers, Foresters and Guards prefer spending most of their time in the civil secretariat, officials were told. With DFOs not available for two years at one place of posting, sources said that preparation of working plan has become an extremely tumultuous task.
They stressed that senior officials have already briefed the government about the dismal scenario and pleaded for streamlining the transfer and posting issues. They have asked the government to take into account needs of forest department and ensure that a check is kept on all the DFOs to ensure timely completion of working plan.
It needs to be mentioned here that working plans of other forest divisions had expired about 2 to 10 years back and till now these 26 divisions are working without any proper direction thereby not yielding any positive result with regard to protection of green gold as well as to increase the forest cover.
The issue was also discussed by the 13th Finance Commission, which while expressing serious concern over non-preparation of working plan, finally sanctioned Rs 133 crore-Rs 16 crore for first two years and Rs 33 crore each for next three years on the condition that forest department will prepare proper and comprehensive working plan for each and every division across the state.
However, the year has passed and forest department is still scrambling to get the working plan ready. It needs to be reiterated that working plan for each division is aimed at guiding DFOs as to which area has to be closed for grazing of animals, where afforestation activities have to be carried at a large scale, which area has to be fenced on priority and which area needs extra vigil to avoid loot and plunder of the green gold by the mafia, sources said.
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