Thiruvananthapuram: The Forest Department’s brazen methods to anoint a lower level official as Kerala Forest Development Corporation MD backfired big time. When the Service Rules forbid it from going ahead, it bent rules to suit its needs, but what it did not notice was that even the distorted rules were not good enough to save its man.
The department’s folly was pointed out by the High Court. The court had on April 11 passed an interim order restraining P.R. Suresh, a deputy conservator of forests, from discharging his functions as MD of KFDC. (Mr Suresh, a retired officer, was brought back to service by inducting him into the IFS cadre in January.) Stung, the department amended the Service Rules and approached the High Court two days later, on April 13. Originally, only an officer of the level of the chief conservator of forests or above must be appointed as KFDC MD. The amended rules presented before the HC said an officer of the level of a deputy conservator of forests can be appointed MD. In fact, there was no space for an amendment; in other words, an MD could not be dumbed down further. Result: the qualifications for the MD and the GM were virtually similar. The qualification for the post of managing director: “an officer of and above the rank of deputy conservator of forest who is senior in rank to the general manager”. For the general manager: “an officer of and above the rank of deputy conservator of forest who is junior in rank to the managing director.” Therefore, a person to be eligible to be appointed as MD should be a deputy conservator, but also senior in rank to a general manager who is also a deputy conservator.
But in dumbing down the stature of MD what the Forest Department failed to notice was that Mr Suresh was paid level-one salary, the minimum of the scale. Meaning, his general manager, who is also a DCF, will at least have a similar pay package. In other words, as the court pointed out, “he could not have been senior in rank as a deputy conservator eligible to be appointed as general manager.”
The Department’s stand is that there are not enough senior officers to spare. Reality is otherwise. There are more principal chief conservators of forests (PCCFs), additional PCCFs and CCFs than are required for the Department. Mr Suresh’s appointment is objected to also on the grounds that a DCF’s financial powers are drastically limited, a factor that can stand in the way of KFDC’s development plans.
