Jammu, Nov 28:
Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar today asked the State Forest Corporation to bring efficiency in its functioning and to improve the financial health of the organization by taking innovative steps. He pressed on re-skilling of the employees to have proper utilization of human resource available with the corporation. The Advisor, who is also the Chairman of the corporation made these remarks while addressing the 68th Board of Directors Meeting of State Forest Corporation (SFC) at Civil Secretariat, here today. The BoD meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Planning Rohit Kansal, Commissioner Secretary Forests M K Dwivedi, PCCF J&K Suresh Chugh, Managing Director JKSFC Vasu Yadav, Director General Codes Mohammad Rafi Andrabi, Chief General Manager (P&P JKSFC) A R Mogal, FA&CAO JKSFC Manohar Lal and other concerned officers. Managing Director JKSFC gave the overview of the corporation along with its financial and physical achievements. He also presented before the meeting various agenda items for the discussion and approval. It was informed that during 2017-18, 40.579 lakh cft of timber was extracted and sales were made upto 41.623 lakh cft thereby recording sales revenue (Net) to the tune of Rs 18800.52 whereas during the current year upto ending September 2018, 20.672 lakh cft has been extracted recording sales revenue (Net) upto Rs 8519.69 lakh. The meeting had threadbare discussions on the various agenda items that were proposed before the Board for its approval.
It was decided in the meeting that to ensure transparency in the allotment of contracts except in case of exigencies, all the extraction works are put to tenders through e-tendering process. With regard to the welfare initiatives for the employees of the corporation, it was approved that for payment of gratuity, the ceiling is revised to Rs 20 lakh with effect from March 29, 2018 bringing it in consonance with the Central Payment of Gratuity Act. The board also approved increase of 12 percent Dearness Allowance (DA) in two installments of 6 percent each making it to 125 percent from the existing 113 percent, the SFC employees are presently getting. After having thorough discussion on the available human resource and the jobs assigned to them, the meeting also agreed to re-organization proposal for making it a viable organization. The Advisor also emphasized on re-skilling of the employees making them more efficient and contributing positively for the development of the organization.
The Chairman asked for getting the positive inputs from other SFC’s in the country doing well in terms of extraction and generation of good revenue.
The board also agreed to support the Forest Department to defray the expenditure on account of marking and enumeration.
While discussing the initiatives undertaken by the corporation to ensure its operations through digital platforms, the Advisor asked for doing all the process of extraction digitally thereby ensuring zero leakage. All the services should be made online to achieve better results, he added.
“To achieve efficiency and ensure transparency in the functioning, adoption of IT-enables services is the only way which not only reduces the gaps but also improves the efficiency of any organization”, the Advisor said.
In another important move, the board also approved release of payment to Wakf Board against the stocks of Baba Reshi to the tune of Rs 1.13 crore.
The Board also had brief discussion over exploring the possibilities of medicinal plantation in the state. Forest department and JKSFC both were asked to take collective efforts for seriously looking into and taking help of the experts in the field to guide in this direction.
With a view to enhance the efficiency during extraction operations, the Advisor asked for taking steps to modernize the fleet & machinery of the corporation. “JKSFC should have best and updated machinery which would surely slash down the cost of timber extraction and increase the overall output”, the Advisor said.
During the meeting, several viable suggestions were also floated by the Directors and other concerned officers for overall development of the corporation. The management of JKSFC was asked to redouble their efforts towards making the corporation more profitable thereby making it financially robust.
