DFO, Haldwani forest division, Pankaj Kumar, nowadays seems to be in a new role, taking a departure from his duties as a conservationist.
“His working hours in office start from 4 in the afternoon when normal office working period is at its fag end. So he makes employees including woman staff wait in the office till 10 pm or so and does not hesitate even to use un-parliamentary language against woman along with other male office staff,” as the agitating employees of the Haldwani forest division allegedly said.
Therefore, disturbed with the style of functioning of DFO, Haldwani forest division, Pankaj Kumar, employees of the Haldwani forest division under the banner of Uttaranchal Forest Ministerial Association (UFMA) have started staging work boycott, demanding immediate transfer of the DFO, Haldwani.
Now our patience has worn thin. We can not work in such environment. Either the DFO should stay here or the employees because we, the employees, are unable to function with the DFO concerned, asserted the employees of the Haldwani forest division.
“The way the DFO throws his tantrums, the employees do not want to work under him at all, alleged the agitating employees.” In a letter to the Conservator of Forest (CF) western circle, Surendra Mehara, talking about the style of functioning of the DFO, Haldwani, the agitating employees led by president of UFMA, Diwan Singh Kaira, further allegedly said that once the DFO Haldwani stopped an employee to go on leave even after sanctioning of his leave. More so, apart from using un-parliamentary language against employees including woman staff, he is also creating a kind of ‘mental tension’ for us in settling matters related to retirement benefits, promotions, to name a few, alleged the employees in their complaint to the CF (western circle).
As, a few agitating employees informed on the condition of anonymity, the working relationship between the DFO, Haldwani and staff of the said “Forest division started taking a low from January this year. He did not join duty on January 1. However, on the next day he turned up and called in entire staff. In the meantime, during the course of meeting on January 2 he, the DFO, Haldwani, again started’misbehaving’ us the employees using the same un-parliamentary language. The situation could have gone out of hands on that day had some of our staff members not tried to impress upon the employees who were quite upset, to maintain calm,” alleged the employees.
In the meantime, when the aforesaid matter was raised before Surendra Mehara, CF (western circle), he told The Pioneer that he is looking in to the matter. Hopefully, the same matter would be sorted out soon, he added.