Expressing deep concern over the suspension of two senior Indian Forest Officers (IFOs) of the State Pradeep Karat and Sarat Kumar Mohanty for their alleged role in the multi-hundred crore illegal mining in the Uliburu reserve forest area of Keonjhar district, the Odisha chapter of the Indian Forest Service Association (IFSA) has sent a memorandum to the State Government urging it to revoke the suspension order stating that such an order would demoralise entire IFS cadre.
The association’s executive committee met here on Saturday under the chairmanship of its president Siddhanta Das and passed a resolution decrying the suspension and urging the Government to revoke it immediately.
The suspension is unwarranted at this stage as both suspended officers who have been posted away from Keonjhar district can in no way influence the investigation, said association secretary Sanjeev Chadha.
Dr Chadha said that of the 35.5 hectares of land where the alleged illegal mining took place, the area under the control of the Forest Department is only limited to 6.39 hectares of Reserve Forest whereas the balance 29.12 hectares was under the control of the revenue administration.
“As per the provisions in the Odisha Forest Code, it is the responsibility of the beat officer (Forest Guard) and section officer (Forester) to inspect all boundaries at least once a year and to report cases of encroachments or willful removal of or destruction of boundary marks,” said Dr Chadha, adding that in the case of Uliburu, the Government has already taken action against the field staff.
Arguing that the DFOs (Divisional Forest Officers) should not be held liable here as they have not neglected nor overlooked any report from sub-ordinate officers about encroachment in the Uliburu forests, the IFSA maintained that such suspension would set an unfortunate precedent of taking action without following due process of law and justice as has happened with IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal in Uttar Pradesh.