Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 27: After a long gap of over 16 years, the State Forest Corporation has finally managed to conduct its much awaited and compulsory audit this year while the Corporation showing significant improvement has managed to reduce its losses from Rs 42 crore to nearly ‘zero level’ in just last three hears.
The figures compiled from SFC indicated huge loss of Rs 42 crore to the Corporation during the year 2010-2011 and nearly worth Rs 24 crore during 2011-12. No doubt, the losses projected by the Corporation during the year 2008-09 was just Rs 3.77 crore, but thereafter, its internal condition went on deteriorating.
Interestingly, the Corporation having strength of nearly 3700 employees is generating as an average Rs 9 to 10 crore per month but its annual salary bill is more than Rs 90 crore. It is bound to bear the burden of over 1000 excess workers, which is the main reason behind its ‘sickness’ and ‘headache’. Most of them are said to be the engagements under political considerations for the past many years. And if over fifty percent of the staff is deputed/ adjusted in other wings of the Forest Department, Corporation is certain to recover its physical status.
Minister for Forest, Environment and Ecology, Mian Altaf when contacted said to reduce the huge losses from Rs 42 to nearly zero level is the great achievement recorded by the Corporation in past three years. Though, in the second quarter it was indicated that Corporation may show some losses by the end of this fiscal year but now the weather condition has improved and if it continued to remain fair, the losses of the SFC would come to almost zero level in 2012-13 financial year.
Replying to a question, Mr Altaf said the State Forest Corporation has been given a revenue target of Rs 105 crore this financial year. It is sure to show a revenue hike of Rs 20-25 crores in 2012-13. During last financial year, the SFC had generated a revenue of Rs 80 crore, in 2010-11 it had shown revenue realization of Rs 64 crores while in 2009-10, it recorded the revenue generation of Rs 79 crore. The Corporation is under intense pressure to meet public demand of timber. The Supreme Court banned green felling in 1996. Only fallen, dry and sick trees can be utilized for extraction now. The SFC is also meeting its social responsibility and the public demand of timber from its limited sources despite this pressure. It is not getting any budgetary support from Government and is surviving at its own, despite excessive staff at lower level (Class-IV), but at the same time it is facing scarcity of officers at senior level, he added.
Forest Minister further disclosed that audit of the Corporation which had not been conducted in past over sixteen years, was got conducted during this years in two phases from 1994-95 to 2004-05 and then up to 2009-2010. It was very lengthy process and officers of the Corporation led by its Managing Director, after doing intensive exercise and hard work, managed to perform this challenging task. He said the audit of the past two years is also undergoing and is likely to be completed in next couple of months. This exercise will bring transparency and accountability in the Corporation, Mr Altaf maintained.
Managing Director, SFC Abhay Kumar when contacted said Corporation’s physical status was grim about two years back. Following directions from the Forest Minister an intensive exercise was commenced to bring it out from the losses. It was found that Corporation had nearly 1000 excessive workers/ employees at Class-IV level and the major portion of its revenue was going in the salary bills which is around Rs 8 crore per month. The average revenue generation was also found to be around Rs 9 crore and under such circumstances it was very difficult to over come losses.
The extraction of the timber also came down as tender boycott by contractors and rates problem also cropped up during last 4-5 years. Over 200 skilled workers from Chenab valley region started shifting to Himachal and Uttranchal as they started getting higher rates there. Import of timber around 35-40 lakh Cft per year from outside also put lot of pressure on the SFC and created challenge for it. Around 100 employees from SFC were shifted to Soil Conservation and Wild Life wings which were facing shortage. By competing in the open market and plugging some loop holes, the Corporation managed to come out of Red. The credit goes to the Chairman (minister) for his initiative and to the entire team of the Corporation which put lot of hard work in past few years. The efforts are on to shift around 300 more employees from the SFC to the other wings of the Forest department, he added.
The MD said about 40 Cft timber is being imported by the private timber traders from outside the country these days and this has posed a great challenge to the Corporation which earlier had its monopoly in timber trade. The people still like local Deodar and Kail timber despite the fact that it is much costlier than imported timber. This imported timber being found unsuitable to the local climatic condition and the people have now again started shifting to the local timber which is also good sign. He said the Pathankote depot of the Corporation was closed many years back due to some reasons. This has great potential of generating nearly Rs 30 cr revenue for the Corporation. This depot is now being opened and made functional shortly with the initiative of the Chairman. After meeting some formalities as per requirements of Punjab State Government, this depot is going to be made functional, the MD maintained.
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