They are the keepers of national wealth worth trillions of dollars, but feel their value has been undermined. An association of Indian Forest Service (ifs) officers is complaining that the sixth pay commission has overlooked them much as the government has neglected the country's wildlife and forests, which cover 21 per cent of India's total geographic area and are valued at Rs 60,000 billion or about one-and-a-half times India's gdp.
The ifs Association has written to the prime minister about its grievances and pay anomalies. While the sixth Central Pay Commission (cpc) has recommended parity between ias and ifs, the ifs Association says in reality it has widened the gap between the two services.According to the association, cpc has reduced the starting basic salary of a conservator of forests from Rs 16,400 to Rs 15,600. This contradicts cpc's own guideline that states when the pay scale is widened a person's starting salary cannot be lowered. The ifs Association instead wants the pay scale of a conservator of forest to be increased to the next level of Rs 39,200-67,000.
The sixth pay commission also puts the seniormost position in forest services in a state--principal chief conservator of forests (pccf)--at a disadvantage. At present, a pccf can match the pay of a state chief secretary (Rs 26,000) after three years of service, but in the revised scale it may take eight years for a pccf to reach the level of a chief secretary, which, the forest officials say, is impossible to achieve as no pccf will have eight years of service left when he/she reaches that level. The association is demanding that the pay of pccf be fixed at Rs 80,000. The sixth pay commission includes only two posts in the pay scale of Rs 80,000--director general of forest at the Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) and director of Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy. The association is demanding that nine posts, including pccf, be upgraded to that pay scale.
