Nagpur: Even as the Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board (MSBB), having its headquarters at Nagpur, has got a new chairman after 14 months, the board was virtually defunct as its affairs were handled from Pune by sitting member-secretary and PCCF Jeet Singh.
Singh was posted at MSBB on June 1, 2019. However, settled in Pune for the last 15 years on various forest department posts, he ran a parallel sub-office of MSBB from Pune but availed all benefits like peon allowance, telephone allowance, newspaper allowance and TA bills which are entitled to being at headquarters. Singh used to visit Nagpur at month-ends to take his salary.
“During that 8-month Covid period, MSBB staff used to go to Jalna to get documents signed from Singh where he used to come from Pune. On administrative matters, the staff used to send papers on his personal e-mail address,” said sources.
According to a series of complaints by contract employees to the forest secretary and others, though Singh claimed all the allowances, as per the GR, a mandatory certificate is required to be given for reimbursement about the installation of landline, internet facility at the official residence. As Singh doesn’t have an official accommodation at Nagpur, these allowances should not have been claimed.
“Though Singh has been transferred to Nagpur about 1.5 years ago, he also did not vacate his official quarter at Pune, which has to be vacated after three months of taking over the new posting,” said the complaint.
Owing to the NGT ruling making mandatory preparation of people’s biodiversity register (PBR), a document of biodiversity in gram panchayats, mandatory, the board prepared over 28,650 PBRs in three months without any public consultation and paid on an average Rs 20,000 to 1.15 lakh per PBR to biodiversity management committees (BMCs). Now, these PBRs are gathering dust and there is no staff to cross-check these PBRs. There are only three employees in the MSBB.
As the board was defunct, many PhD students were not given the board’s permission for research works for flora and fauna. Only 2-3 applications were approved. The board is also losing crores of rupees towards access benefit sharing (ABS) from various manufacturing companies whose activities are based on natural resources. Such companies get registered with the MSBB office at Nagpur and pay a royalty to the board on the basis of their production.
However, Singh refuted all the allegations. “The 8-9 contractual staffers are frustrated as I’ve removed them due to lack of funds. The board has no money to pay their salaries. We received Rs 47 lakh only in 2020-21, which is meagre sum to run the board.
“There is no corruption of even Rs 10 in the MSBB. If proved, I’m ready to resign. I operated from Pune because there is a board office there and hence there is no problem in claiming allowances. With biodiversity being a big subject, 50% of the work is in Western Maharashtra,” said Singh.
On the ABS issue, Singh said, “There is a court order hence we can’t take any cohesive action in the matter against companies. For the past one-year, the MSBB was not in existence and hence my role was limited. Now, the chairman has been appointed and we will work systematically.”
On PBRs, Singh said, “It is true that preparing PBRs is an exhaustive process but had we not prepared these PBRs, the NGT would have imposed a fine of Rs 10 lakh per month. Hence, these were prepared hurriedly. We don’t have staff to scrutinize these PBRs.”
WHAT HAPPENED
· City-based MSBB headquarters got new chairman after 14 months
· Its affairs were handled from Pune by sitting member-secretary and PCCF Jeet Singh
· Singh was posted at MSBB on June 1, 2019
· In Pune for the last 15 years, he ran a parallel sub-office of MSBB
· Availed benefits like peon allowance, telephone allowance, newspaper allowance and TA bills entitled only at the headquarters
· Used to visit Nagpur at month-ends to take salary
· MSBB staff used to go to Jalna to get documents signed from Singh where he used to come from Pune