The shake-up became necessary as Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra managing director SK Sood is all set to retire on Saturday. Sources close to forest minister Patangrao Kadam told TOI that Sood will be replaced by Prakash Thosre. The latter is currently the principal chief conservator of forest (PCCF) for production & management. Thosre will be retiring in August.
The orders were keenly awaited on Friday but now will reach Van Bhavan on Saturday morning.
It was widely expected by many in the cadre that Sood would be replaced by SWH Naqvi, a 1977 batch IFS officer now working as APCCF (subordinate cadre). But Naqvi is now moving in place of SK Khetarpal as PCCF (wildlife).
TOI learns that the shake-up was deemed necessary as the government was apparently not happy with the performance of the wildlife department. When it came to relocation of villages, development of forest tourism and utilization of government funds, the department failed to achieve targets.
The decisions come in the wake of a letter issued on January 19 by forest secretary Praveen Pardeshi to all senior officials that poor implementation of schemes will have an adverse impact on their career graph. Read the full report here.
Source: Vijay Pinjarkar, TNN, Nagpur.
