State govt hurriedly issued relieving order, decided to forgo process of VRS.
The state forest department got a major blow when the Central Administration Tribunal (CAT) stayed its order relieving principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF, Wildlife) B Majumdar and asking him to hand over the charge of the highest post in the department to a junior officer.
Taking advantage of Majumdar’s posting to the Nagpur bench of
Maharastra Administration Tribunal (MAT), the state government hurriedly issued the relieving order. In doing so, the government even decided to forgo the process of voluntary retirement which Majumdar should follow before joining a post outside forest department. Majumdar holds the additional charge of PCCF (Head of Forest Force) after the retirement of Jwala Prasad. Surprisingly, he was asked to hand over the charge of PCCF (HFF) to SK Sood, who currently holds the charge of PCCF (Human Resource Management and Administration), bypassing two senior officials.
The government should have first asked Majumdar whether he was actually going to take charge of the state tribunal. “The government is trying to push a junior officer to the post of PCCF (HFF) in an out of the turn manner,” said a senior forest official.
Majumdar received the relieving order on Saturday from additional chief secretary (Revenue and Forest) JP Dange. The order also asked him to join the state tribunal immediately. Majumdar was asked to hand over the PCCF, Wildlife charge to PCCF (Production and Management) AK Joshi and the HFF charge to Sood.
Sood is junior to AK Joshi and CS Joshi, managing director, forest development corporation of Maharashtra. “As per rules, either of these two officers should have been asked to officiate as PCCF (HFF), if Majumdar decides to go to the state tribunal,” said the official.
When asked, why did the government not wait for Majumdar’s approval to join MAT, Dange only said: “The order is very clear.”
“I have three choices - holding the charge of PCCF (HFF), MAT and DG (Forest) at New Delhi. I will have to first resign from the current posting and take up either MAT or the post of DG (Forest). That would be my own decision,” said Majumdar.
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