A departmental inquiry has been initiated towards two Assam Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers for allegedly flouting guidelines and making a ruckus inside Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, in accordance with folks conscious of the matter.
The sanctuary is amongst 4 locations the place one-horned rhinos are discovered within the state.
The purported incident contained in the sanctuary, on the outskirts of Guwahati, befell on Sunday when secretary and commissioner (forest and surroundings division) Akash Deep and chief electoral officer (Assam) Nitin Khade had been on a safari with their households.
In keeping with the Jeep Safari House owners’ Affiliation of the sanctuary, the officers and others smoked cigarettes and created ruckus within the forest.
Smoking, ingesting alcohol and alighting from the car throughout safari are prohibited.
On Monday, the affiliation wrote to chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the incident and sought motion towards the bureaucrats.
“It’s unlucky that the officers and their teams smoked and created ruckus contained in the forest and likewise sat on the bonnet of the jeeps. When the drivers and forest guards requested them to not sit on bonnets, the officers acquired livid and verbally abused them,” the letter mentioned.
HT has seen a replica of the letter.
Affiliation president Nripen Nath mentioned: “Whereas the letter didn’t point out names of the officers, we later got here to know they had been Akash Deep, secretary and commissioner (forest and surroundings division) and Nitin Khade, chief electoral officer (Assam).”
Each the officers had been current with their households and there have been round 12-14 folks within the group, Nath mentioned. “They’d employed three jeeps for safari contained in the wildlife sanctuary,” he added.
The affiliation additionally despatched copies of the letter to forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, native MLA and data minister Pijush Hazarika and principal chief conservator of forests MK Yadava.
Divisional forest officer (Guwahati wildlife division) Jayashree Naiding confirmed {that a} departmental inquiry has been ordered into the incident.
“I’m on go away proper now and don’t have the precise particulars of what occurred. Since an inside inquiry is underway, it gained’t be proper to remark,” she mentioned.
Deep dismissed the allegations as “baseless”.
“I’m shocked how and why these allegations are being made. These are completely baseless and fabricated and I’ve knowledgeable my senior officers about the identical,” he mentioned.
“Through the safari, I discovered the habits of the drivers rude and there have been some doubts in regards to the health of the automobiles. Because the commissioner-cum-secretary of the division, I discussed it to the native forest ranger. There was no impolite interplay between me and the drivers and forest guards,” he added.
Khade and Patowary didn’t reply to HT’s calls and messages on the matter.