By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 5 Apr: After taking over as PCCF and Head of the Forest Department, yesterday, on the directions of the Uttarakhand High Court, Rajiv Bhartari today shifted several senior IFS officers. It is not known whether prior approval of the Forest Minister Subodh Uniyal and the government was taken before the transfers or not. The transfer orders were issued under the signature of Rajiv Bhartari. The transfer order says that 26 IFS officers had sought their transfers through a petition filed in the Uttarakhand High Court under case number WP (S/B) 706/2022.
Transfer orders are being issued in respect of 10 IFS officers to begin with in compliance with the Judgement of the High Court dated 23 March, it has been stated.
Chief Conservator, Monitoring, Evaluation and IT, Nakshatra Lav Shah has been posted as Chief Conservator, Land Conservation, Kalsi. Chief Conservator, Monitoring, Akhilesh Bhatt has been given charge of Mussoorie Forest Division. Chief Conservator Latika Uniyal has been given the responsibility of Dehradun Forest Division. Forest Officer Nitin Pant has been given the responsibility of the Pithoragarh Forest Division. Gopal Dutt Joshi was given the responsibility of Almora Forest Division, Jugal Kishore, of the Nanda Devi National Park, Joshimath. Manoj Pandey has been given responsibility of Forest Division, Nainital. Trilok Singh Bora has been given charge of Forest Division, Haldwani, Vijay Singh Negi has been given the responsibility of Forest Division, Mussoorie, while Govind Singh Pawar has been given charge of Narendranagar Forest Division.
It may be recalled that despite clear orders in the Uttarakhand High Court’s judgement related to reinstatement of Rajiv Bhartari as PCCF and Head of the Forest Department by Tuesday, Bhartari had to wait for more than three hours at the Forest Headquarters, yesterday, before he could take charge. Sources claimed that the government orders regarding his reinstatement were received rather late by the Forest Department following which Bhartari could take over as PCCF only at around 1:30 p.m., yesterday. Sources also claimed that the delay was due to the fact that yesterday was a government holiday on account of Mahavira Jayanti. Outgoing PCCF Vinod Singhal was not present on the occasion of transfer of the charge ostensibly because it was a holiday. However, what was surprising to notice was the hesitation on part of other senior officers from the department to cooperate with Bhartari.
