Green scientists denied basic perks, cry foul

They might be one of the top environment scientists of the country but even by the virtue of being associated with the government they enjoyed no privileges extended to the most basic grades of government service. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Jun 10, 2012, 23:18:37 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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They might be one of the top environment scientists of the country but even by the virtue of being associated with the government they enjoyed no privileges extended to the most basic grades of government service.

Having served the environmental science with almost everything they have got, scientists such as GK Prasad, JDS Negi and VK Jain discovered that the government is not obliged to pay for their medical expenses.

Prasad had to pay Rs 4 lakh for a bypass surgery, Negi had to spend about Rs 30 lakh for kidney treatment of his wife and Jain exhausted all his life savings for health-related problems of his wife.

They are just a few of many environment scientists across India who had become victims of the environment ministry's apathy. Had the ministry implemented a Cabinet decision of 1990 converting the Indian Council of Forest Research and Education (IFCRE), where they worked, into an autonomous organisation, their medical expenses would have been reimbursed like other government employees.

The council was born in 1986 as a result of Central government's decision to set up a parent body for forestry research having six institutes under its ambit, including Forest Research Institute set up by the British in 1906.

To make it truly a forest research body, the IFCRE had scientists from top bodies such as Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Wildlife Institute of India and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), as its members.

Four years later, the Cabinet decided to grant IFCRE an autonomous status similar to that extended to the CSIR and ICAR, thereby ensuring that all employees are treated at par with other employees of the Central government's scientific bodies. Two decades later, the council is an autonomous authority but only on paper but not in reality.

Instead of enforcing Central government pension rules, the council put in place its own service rules which meant that the employees were not eligible for regular pension and medical benefits post-retirement.

"Written promises were given that all benefits applicable to Central government employees will be provided to us before we opted for IFCRE rules," said a representation by the scientists working in six institutes under the council to environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan.

What could be seen as another blow to scientists in the forest sector the environment ministry has now proposed another Cabinet note reiterating the points of 1990. But scientists said it was not required.

But, with the new Cabinet note the environment ministry is trying to carve out a separate department — forestry and research.

Earlier attempt of the foresters in the ministry to get a separate department for forestry and wildlife was shot down by the Prime Minister’s Office. The decision was seen as a cadre rivalry between IAS and IFS official as latter would have got a permanent secretary level post in government of India.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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