Research and development programme of the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) and its institutes has been virtually stopped due to paucity of funds. Stating this and expressing concern at the situation, the Forest Scientists’ Association (FoSA) secretary has written to the director general of Forests, Sharad Singh Negi who is also vice-chairman of the ICFRE board of governors. The FoSA has sought necessary financial allocations for R&D works and other aspects.
In his letter to the DG, Forests, FoSA secretary Ashok Kumar states that on March 20 this year, the ICFRE assistant director general (Administration), declared financial year 2015-16 as zero year for research, extension and education in ICFRE, through the official email. In his letter Kumar states, “This unfortunate apathy of top management of the council has been distressing scientists of ICFRE as majority of the research projects approved during last three years (2012-2013 onwards) by Research Advisory Group (RAG) and Research Policy Committee (RPC) have not been initiated and kept on the shelf without any concern for funding for such approved projects. In this era of research and development, newly recruited scientists of ICFRE are being deprived of participation in long term sustainable research. The research infrastructure including equipment and resources of different institutes have been deteriorating for want of funds for proper maintenance and upkeep. The permanent employees of ICFRE are also undergoing a tough time living in stress as even after written commitments, ICFRE seems to be fully unreceptive willingly towards serious concerns of pension and medical corpus.”
The FoSA secretary has also requested Negi to facilitate an additional allocation of Rs 50 crore exclusively for research and development in addition to a one-time special grant of about Rs 500 crore for sustainability of pension and medical corpus.