A shortage of officials is militating against action on the PM’s concern for issues relating to the environment, forests, and wildlife.
NEW DELHI: A shortage of officials is militating against action on the Prime Minister’s concern for issues relating to the environment, forests, and wildlife. The Union ministry in charge of these affairs does not have personnel dedicated to relevant functions.
In fact, half of the top positions – from joint-secretary level to higher ranks – in the environment and forests ministry have been vacant for months. Many of these positions, including critical portfolios, are being looked after by officials handling other tasks. And although the Prime Minister had asked months ago for the bifurcation of the environment and forest wings into separate departments, there has been no change in the ministry’s functioning.
The joint secretary for climate change has been vested with half-a-dozen different responsibilities. So much so, the official could not represent India at a recent Paris conference in which the latest climate change report was released.
The post of director-general of forests [DG(F)] — the top station in the Indian Forest Service with the rank of special secretary — has been vacant since the retirement of the incumbent JC Kala in October.
GK Prasad, additional DG(F), has been officiating as acting DG(F) while the ministry awaits the appointment of a full-fledged director-general. Prasad has not been regularised even at the ADG post; he has been retained in the position with periodic three-month extensions over the past two years.
AN Prasad, president of the IFS Association, attributes the arrangement to the sudden change in rules and procedure of appointments effected by the department of personnel and training (DoPT). The department has applied the general rule of empanelling batches of officers for top appointments, as other ministerial units do. Prasad said he intends to write to the Prime Minister’s office raising the appointments issue, and has also met the department’s secretary in this connection.
The forest department, unlike others, has only a couple of openings at the top level. So, it is being suggested that it makes little sense to empanel hundreds of officers for each post, some of which, like wild life, are highly specialised disciplines. Earlier, the ministry used to select a candidate after inviting applications for these posts. “Rather than keeping positions vacant, the DoPT should have suspended the application of the rule till it was ready to fill the vacancies,” Prasad said.
The post of inspector-general (forest conservation), the official who determines the clearance of projects on forest land, has been lying vacant for two years. Other positions waiting for officials include one in the regional office at Bangalore and that of director of the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, which trains IFS probationers.
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