Whose Writ Runs In Forest Department?

Whose Writ Runs In Forest Department?

GUWAHATI: How coherent is the State Forest department? Such a question arises as it has come to light that a section of top-level Forest officials does many things by keeping the minister in the dark.

An instant case at hand is the move to revive the now-defunct flying squads in the department. Such flying squads were formed in 2017 when illegal transportation of stones, sand, timber and other forest resources was rampant in the State. The purpose for forming the flying squads was to inform higher-ups in the department of such illegal transportation of forest resources. What led then Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma to form such flying squads was – rampant transportation of forest resources was indicative of failure on the part of forest officials in detecting such illegalities or involvement of a section of officials in the corrupt practice.

Initially such squads worked well, but as time went by allegations of a section of them charging cash from truckers and others illegally transporting forest resources started to creep.

Soon after taking the charge of Environment and Forest last year, Minister Parimal Suklabaidya disbanded all flying squads in the department as they had failed to serve the very purpose for which they were formed.

Strangely enough, a few days back a section of top forest officials had almost finalized the revival of a flying squad for keeping an eye on the transportation of forest resources on the national highway between Guwahati and other lower Assam areas. The minister, however, has immediately stopped the move when he came to know of it. On Tuesday, the Additional Chief Conservator of Forest wrote a letter to the Chief Conservator of Forest (T) saying that the revival of the lower Assam zonal forest squad be stopped immediately.

What’s latent in the entire episode, if not taken care of, may have far-reaching ramifications. A question that makes circles concerned curious is: how come a section of top Forest bureaucrats revives flying squads keeping the minister heading the department in the dark? What can be made out from the incident is – either a section of top bureaucrats in the department has been ignoring the minister or the minister doesn’t have a good grip on the department.

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