Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 9: Adhocism is galore in the State Forest Department and seniority is no criteria at all. Despite availability of sufficient number of senior officers, the juniors are ruling the roost and managing lucrative posts using their ‘influence’ and the political connections.
One may be surprised to study the data available in the State Forest Department that out of all the 170 territorial and other functional Forest Ranges of Kashmir, Jammu provinces and the Central circles, hardly 36 are manned by Range Officers which means not more than 20%, whereas, 114 Ranges are controlled by the In-charge Range Officers , who are actually Foresters or Dy Foresters and their percentage comes out to be above 70 per cent.
Official sources revealed that there are total 66 Forest Divisions including territorial and functional, in the State Forest Department for which there are 48 Assistant Conservators of Forests (ACFs) and 8 Dy Conservator of Forests (DCFs). The total comes out to be 56, which clearly indicates that Divisions are more than senior Forest officers available with the department.
Again, there are 170 Forest Ranges for which there are 69 Range Officers Grade-I ( RO-I) and 39 Range Officer Grade-II ( RO-II) and the total comes out to be 108. It means sufficient posts of the cadre are available with the department to accommodate all the Range Officers of Grade I and II. There are 559 Forest Blocks in the State and they are enough to accommodate all the Foresters/ Dy Foresters.
Interestingly, out of the 69 RO-I, 14 are on training. And out of the remaining 54 RO-I, almost all (44) are placed as In-charge ACF. Whereas, out of these 44 In-charge RO-I, 39 are working against the posts of DFOs/ Project Officers etc. It reveals that 80 % posts are held by these ROs, Hardly five RO-I are worming as Rangers. There are 39 RO-II and all are working as In-charge RO-I and out of these ROs some are also working as DFOs/DDO in-charge. There are 40 Forest Divisions and more than 50 percent are held by ROs or Block Officers whereas, IFS, DCFs and ACFs combined together hold less than half of the Forest Divisions.
This prevailing malpractice within the department has exposed its internal functioning and the nexus of some influential blue eyed people who manage their placing as per their sweet will and using political connections, where some seniors are even made to work under the juniors. The things would definitely appear more worst to a common in the system when they are made to know that about 20 Foresters and even the Dy Forests in the department have been given the charge of DFO/PO/DDO, which means two-three steps up in the hierarchy.
And this is happening when department has sufficient number of trained senior officers available. As per the data available some of the junior officers of the rank of Foresters are holding the post of DFO SF Anantnag, DFO Eco Task Force Jammu, DFO Spl Div Tangmarg, DFO SF Ramban, Ramban (t) Forest Division, TPO Srinagar, DFO Stat Dv Srnaar, DFO SF Jammu, DFO Working Plan Ramnagar, DFO SF Baramulla, Dy Director FPF Reasi, Dy Director FPF Budgam, PO Kishenganga, Dy Director FPF Jammu and so on.
Unfortunately, this undue favour to the ‘favourites’ and other influentials by placing them against the higher and lucrative posts, has disturbed the whole of the department hierarchy. Not only this, it has also created ‘temporary shortage’ of officers to fill up 170 posts of Range officers where there are already less officers to fill of all the Ranges available.
This deliberate confusion and chaos created by ‘some key ill-advised officers’ within the department for their vested motives has forced the Government to fill these Forest Ranges with Foresters and even the juniors. Now a system where Foresters are given preference over the ACFs and IFS officers, one can well imagine the fate of forests and the height of the system prevailing within. Even, if the department avails the services of direct recruited ACFs they can discharge better services being well equipped and being technically sound.
Sources said that a ‘lobby’ was working within the department where ROs and Foresters are given preference against IFS, DCFs and ACFs. It has deep penetration within the system. Ultimately top officers at the helm of affairs or the minister concerned have to set the system right within the department.
A top Forest officer on the condition of anonymity claimed that there was shortage of staff in the department and the higher authorities have been apprised of the matter. Some direct recruits have also reported and they are being placed against the available posts. When asked why so juniors are being given preference and placed on the higher posts, even two steps up, he said there may be certain pulls and pressures within but mainly shortage of staff is the main problem.
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