A group of retired civil servants and former diplomats on Tuesday expressed concerns about a recent order issued by Assam’s special chief secretary for environment deploying about 1,600 personnel of the state’s forest protection force for duties related to the upcoming Assembly elections.
Citing a March 26 report by NorthEast Now about the deployment, the former bureaucrats said in an open letter to the state administration that the decision to depute Assam Forest Protection Force personnel for polling duty directly contravened legal and administrative norms.
The order was issued on March 19, according to the news portal.
Assam will hold the elections on April 9 and the votes will be counted on May 4. The state administration has been reporting to the Election Commission since the Model Code of Conduct took effect on March 15.
The guidelines of the Election Commission state that territorial forest forces and serving forest officials, including senior officers of the Indian Forest Service, are not to be requisitioned or deployed for duties relating to elections, said the Constitutional Conduct Group.
“These instructions [of the poll panel] are designed to ensure that critical ecological protection and forest governance functions are not put at risk during elections,” it said, adding that the group was “alarmed to find that the guidelines have been violated” by senior officials of the state government.
The deployment of the Assam Forest Protection Force personnel is “particularly alarming given the need to protect Assam’s globally significant wildlife, and its endangered species”.
Constant vigilance by trained forest protection forces is critical to prevent poaching and habitat encroachments in protected areas such as the Kaziranga National Park, the group added.
“Other important wildlife such as elephants and tigers will also be left unprotected, and at the mercy of poachers, if the forest field staff is deployed for election duties,” the former bureaucrats said. “Diverting such a large number of AFPF personnel at this time will inevitably weaken on-ground protection mechanisms and increase the vulnerability of precious wildlife to organised wildlife crime.”
They added that the Supreme Court had in 2024 recognised the specialised and essential character of forest-related work, and had “categorically exempted forest officials and forest department vehicles” from being deployed for election duties.
“Any administrative action inconsistent with this directive is a serious violation of the Supreme Court’s directions and exposes the state government to potential judicial scrutiny for non-compliance with binding orders,” the group said, adding that it sets a troubling precedent that “disregards both statutory safeguards and institutional integrity”.
The retired bureaucrats urged the state’s chief secretary to withdraw the order.
The 40 signatories to the letter include Punjab’s former Director General of Police Julio Ribeiro, Delhi’s former Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, former Indian ambassador Gautam Mukhopadhaya, and former Indian Administrative Service officer and activist Harsh Mander.
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