Bhubaneswar: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has asked concerned authorities for compliance with instructions and guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to exempt officials and vehicles of the forest department from electoral duty, thus sparing them for protection of the wild.
A petition was filed in the NGT seeking a direction to all States and Union Territories not to requisite forest officials and forest vehicles for upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha election duties and further to implement the instruction letters dated 08.02.2023 and 07.06.2023 issued by the Election Commission of India exempting territorial staff of the Forest Department and forest vehicles for requisitioning in upcoming election duty.
The petitioner has submitted that Forest and Wildlife Departments of the State have the primary responsibility of enforcement of forest and wildlife related Acts and under the CAMPA Scheme, forestry activities are time bound scheduled activities which are to be run continuously throughout the year.
He has also referred to orders issued by the Superintendent of Police, Bageshwar, deploying certain forest employees and order dated 06.01.2024 by the District Election Officer, Rudraprayag deploying certain forest officials and has submitted that these orders have been passed in contravention of the instructions by the Election Commission.
“Since, requisite instructions and guidelines have already been issued and concerned authorities are expected to comply with the same while ensuring smooth holding of election, therefore, it will be open to the applicant to bring the above instructions to the concerned authorities for their compliance in accordance with law. Hence, we are of the view that at this stage, no further direction by the Tribunal is required,” the NGT said in its order.
