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Jamshedpur, Feb 26: Development of Saranda has taken a back seat, thanks to a dearth of foresters and guards.
Under the Saranda Action Plan, a slew of development projects in the forest needs to be executed on a war footing, with forest guards and officials taking the lead. But manpower crunch has forced the employees to curb their roles to prevent felling of trees and illegal mining.
At present, there are only eight guards in Saranda, as against the sanctioned posts of 72. Similarly, there are 10 foresters against a sanctioned 23.
DFO of Saranda K.K. Tiwary said: “Under the Saranda Action Plan, 36,000 hectares of forestland is on the development radar, which forest guards are required to supervise. But due to staff crunch, they cannot actively participate in development work.”
A guard is supposed to supervise work done performed by labourers and get the approval of the foresters.
Roads, community halls, houses, check dams and other infrastructure projects are part of the action plan, a major portion of which has to be carried out under MGNREGS.
No guard has been recruited in the past 20 years.
A senior official said the forest department had taken an initiative to hire 2,000 guards in the state. “But, due to some hitches in the policies of recruitment, the matter has not gone ahead,” he added.
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