NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it has initiated steps to enhance the infrastructure and staff of its Forest Department for better preservation and conservation of forests.
The Aam Aadmi Party government made the submission in a report filed following a March 25 order of the NGT asking whether its December 10, 2015 direction to enhance the Forest Department’s staff strength and provide proper infrastructure and equipment to its officials had been complied with. The March 25 order came on a plea by a Delhi resident alleging that the tribunal’s December 2015 direction had not been complied with by the Forest Department.
The earlier direction of the tribunal to enhance the Forest Department’s strength and infrastructure was issued on the resident’s plea alleging that the department was suffering from “massive deficiencies of manpower resources”, due to which it was facing difficulties in preserving and conserving the flora and fauna in the capital.
Following the March order, the Forest Department filed a status report claiming that it had created 49 new forest staff posts and 38 ministerial staff posts. Some of these posts, including that of wildlife inspector, forest guard and forest ranger, are yet to be filled and the department said in its report that the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board had been requested to fill the vacancies.
Apart from that, it had forwarded to the Administrative Reforms Department a proposal for creating 408 additional posts of “frontline forestry staff”, which was cut down to 242 and is awaiting concurrence of the Finance Department, the status report said. Regarding enhancement of infrastructure, the department said it had hired six vehicles and purchased 10 motorcycles for field activities.