New Delhi [India], May 18 (ANI): As the temperature in Delhi increases, the National Zoological Park in the national capital makes arrangements for animals in the zoo to beat the heat.

Rajouri (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], March 25 (ANI): To boost women's empowerment in the valley, the forest department of Kashmir's Nowshera subdivision, started handicrafts training for the local women in the area using the fallen Chir Needles, said the Forest officials on Thursday.

Ranchi Jan 22 PTI Describing the proposed amendments to IAS Cadre rules as draconian and intended to promote unilateralism Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bury those proposalsThe Jharkhand government had received a proposal from the Centre seeking certain amendments in the IAS Cadre Rules 1954 and the state already communicated its disagreement on it Soren said in a strongly-worded letter to ModiIn the meantime we have received another draft of the proposed amendments in the cadre rules of All India Services which prima facie appear to be more draconian than the previous proposalI feel constrained to write this letter to express my strong reservations and apprehensions about these proposed amendments and strongly urge you to bury it at this stage only the letter readHe said that the proposed amendments seem to be contrary to the spirit of cooperative federalism and an attempt to control officers of a state where the political party in power is different from the one at the CentreUndoubtedly this move is likely to further strain the already stressed Centre-State relations the chief minister of Jharkhand ruled by a JMM-led coalition said in the letter to the PMThis will demotivate an officer and create a fear psychosis in the persons mind that will affect performance and efficiency Soren saidIt will certainly cause permanent and irreparable damage to the functioning of bureaucracy in India he saidThe Union government has proposed an amendment to IAS Cadre rules which would enable it to post IAS officers on central deputation bypassing reservations of state governmentsIn the letter Soren claimed that the proposed move has immense potential to be misused for harassment of officers and vendetta politics against the state governmentHe said it is not clear as to what has necessitated this move to bring about these amendments that will force any officer of All India Services working in a state to come on deputation to the Government of India without the consent of the officer concerned and no objection certificate NOC of the state governmentIf the objective is to meet the shortage of officers serving in the affairs of the Government of India then I must say it is not a desirable move he wrote in the letterSoren said a state government gets the services of only three categories of officers - IAS IPS and Indian Forest Service IFS - whereas the Centre gets a huge pool of officers every year from more than 30 odd other All India ServicesCiting an acute shortage of officers in Jharkhand he said currently only 140 IAS officers 65 per cent and 95 IPS officers 64 per cent are working in the state as against the sanctioned strength of 215 and 149 respectivelyThe situation is no better in case of Indian Forest Service officers Soren said without elaboratingMany officers are holding more than one charge and administrative work is suffering due to this acute shortage of officers the letter saidFurther forced removal of officers from this stressed pool will make it extremely difficult for the State Government to discharge its duties as are expected to be performed by any popularly elected government it readSoren said implementation of schemes of the central and state governments will be affected due to absence of an adequate number of officers if the proposals are effectedAn officer will also not be able to give a candid opinion in matters which entail taking sides in sensitive matters of Centre-State disputes which are in plenty in a mineral-rich state like Jharkhand he saidThe Centre should introspect and find out the reasons for the perceptible decline over a couple of the last few years in the number of officers opting to go on central deputation the chief minister said PTI NAM NN NN

Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], January 18 (ANI): Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupender Yadav on Monday said that the forest officers as the voice of the voiceless need to work with an approach that is earnestly humane and sensitive to the aspirations and needs of the local community.

New Delhi [India], December 28 (ANI): Indian Forest Service officer Chandra Prakash Goyal has been appointed as the Director-General of Forests & Special Secretary (DGF&SS), Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.

Bhopal Dec 20 PTI A senior IAS officer attached to the horticulture department who recently initiated a probe into scam allegations in onion seed purchase was shifted to the state secretariat without any new department being assigned to her The transfer order of horticulture department principal secretary and 1992 batch Indian Administrative Service official Kalpana Shrivastava which was issued on December 18 a holiday has given rise to speculation here that the shift may be linked to her initiating a probe into alleged irregularities in onion seed purchases The departments charge has been given to Additional Chief Secretary JN Kansotia who also has charge of the animal husbandry department Horticulture commissioner Manoj Kumar Agrawal a 1993 batch Indian Forest Service IFoS official has been sent back to the forest department as well they said Department sources told PTI the MP Economic Offences Wing has started a probe into the onion seed matter The Kisan Ekta Manch in a letter to MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had alleged that the purchase of onions by the department was a Rs 2 crore scam and it had demanded that a criminal case be filed in the matter Udyaniki Adhikari Karmachari Sanghs horticultute department working president Mahesh Pratap Singh Bundela had also written a letter to the CM as well as Shrivastava and the EOW demanding a probe and registration of a criminal case Bundela in his complaint letter had claimed that the department bought onion seeds at Rs 2300 per kilogram against a prevailing rate of Rs 1100 per kg Sources said Shrivastava as principal secretary of the department had initiated a probe based on the complaints and had directed the commissioner on October 18 to take legal action against those responsible for violating rules in the purchase Payments had also been stopped in the matter these sources said PTI MAS BNM BNM BNM

Dehradun Nov 29 PTI With the daily COVID-19 caseload rising in Uttarakhand amid reports of the new variant Omicron spreading in different countries social activist Anoop Nautiyal on Monday suggested five measures to the state government for tackling the situation The five steps suggested by Nautiyal include intensifying the anti-COVID vaccination drive to cover the entire population of the state as fast as possible stepping up testing resumption of contact tracing tightening surveillance and testing at the borders besides a renewed emphasis on COVID-appropriate behaviour In the light of Omicron my suggestion is to vaccinate the remaining population in Uttarakhand of 30 lakh people on a war footing ramp up testing three times more than the current level of 8000 per day restart contact tracing tighten surveillance and testing at the states borders and emphasise COVID-appropriate behaviour leading by example Nautiyal said Uttarakhand reported 36 cases on Sunday out of which 19 were from Pauri district alone followed by Nainital with seven cases Dehradun which recorded five Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts two each and Almora one Expressing concern over the rise in cases Nautiyal who runs an NGO named Social Development for Communities Foundation said that this is the highest daily pandemic tally in the state after two-and-a-half months On September 15 earlier in the year 49 cases were reported in a single day The positivity rate recorded on Sunday was 067 per cent which was 4-5 times higher than the past few days Eleven out of a total of 48 Indian Forest Service officers who had gone from the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy IGNFA here to Lucknow for a mid-career training programme had tested positive for COVID-19on their return last week They have been kept in isolation at IGNFAs old hostel that has been converted into a coronavirus micro-containment zone The Forest Research Institute on whose campus the IGNFA hostel is situated has also been shut for visitors till December 5PTI ALM HDA

Mumbai Sep 23 PTI The Maharashtra government has set up a committee to monitor inquiry into complaints of sexual harassment against All India Services officialsThe committee headed by the chief secretary will have senior women officials from the IPS IAS and Indian Forest Service as its members a Government Resolution order said on ThursdayA four-member internal complaints committee headed by a senior woman officer from the All India services too has been formed to deal with sexual harassment complaints it saidThe complaints committee will have a tenure of three years Appointments to this committee will be done by the monitoring panel headed by the chief secretary the GR said PTI MR KRK KRK KRK

New Delhi Sep 21 PTI The Centre has amended over a 50-year-old rule to allow IAS IPS and IFoS officers to retain gifts received from foreign dignitaries while being members of the Indian delegation according to an official orderExisting rules allowed these officers to accept gifts from their near relatives or from personal friends having no official dealings with them on occasions such as weddings anniversaries funerals and religious functions when the making of gifts is in conformity with the prevailing religious and social practiceBut they shall make a report to the government if the value of such gift exceeds Rs 25000 the rules sayGifts include free transport free boarding free lodging or any other service or pecuniary advantage when provided by a person other than a near relative or personal friend having no official dealings with the officer but does not include a casual meal casual lift or other social hospitalityNo member of the service shall accept any gift without the sanction of the government if the value of a gift exceeds Rs 5000 says the All India Services Conduct Rules 1968 applicable to the officers of Indian Administrative Service IAS Indian Police Service IPS and Indian Forest Service IFoSMember of the service shall avoid accepting lavish hospitality or frequent hospitality from persons having official dealings with them or from industrial or commercial firms or other organisations these rules sayThe Personnel Ministry has now amended these rules and inserted a new sub-rule under Section 11 of the All India Services Conduct Rules 1968a member of the service being a member of the Indian delegation or otherwise may receive and retain gifts from foreign dignitaries in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign Contribution Acceptance or Retention of Gifts or Presentations Rules 2012 as amended from time-to-time read the recently amended rule The Personnel Ministry had in March last year sought comments from state governments on the proposed rulespresently there are no provisions under the AIS Conduct Rules 1968 with regard to receiptretention of gifts from foreign dignitaries by members of the AIS being a member of Indian delegation or otherwise Therefore it has been decided with the approval of a competent authority to insert a new sub-rule it had said in a communiqu dated March 3 last yearThey were asked to send responses by March 31 2020 positively failing which would be presumed that the state government has no objection to the proposed amendmentsGifts received from foreign dignitaries from known or unknown sources are usually deposited with the toshakhana -- a repository of such articles -- in the Ministry of External Affairs PTI AKV KJ

New Delhi [India], August 17 (ANI): Dr Sonali Ghosh, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer of the 2000 batch, on Tuesday took charge as the Director of Delhi Zoo.