JOIN USThe High Court on Monday took the State government to task for not filling the vacant positions in the Forest department.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna asked the government to submit a cadre-wise report on the number of vacant positions in the Forest department.
Hearing a suo motu PIL on man-elephant conflicts, the bench directed the government to fill the vacancies at the earliest.
One of the petitioners’ advocate, recalling the recent incident of wild elephants entering the urban areas of Bangalore, said that if the Forest department takes measures to cultivate elephant fodder inside the forest range, five years down the lane, elephants crossing their corridor and entering urban pockets can be restricted.
The bench also directed the government to check illegal quarrying activities in the forest range and also check the renewal of licenses to these quarrying agencies.
Raman Sukumar from the Center for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute Science who has submitted the Elephant Task Force report has sought for right of ordinance in the PIL to have his say in the decisions taken in the High Court.
School dropouts
The High Court on Monday sought to know from the government, the details of the schemes available with it for bringing dropouts back to schools.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna observed that there are good schemes for those children who are already in school, but there are not many for those who have dropped out.
Hearing a suo motu PIL on based on a report in an English daily about glitches in implementing Right to Education Act in the State, the bench sought information on the cash incentive schemes available for the school dropouts.
The government’s advocate submitted to the court that one of the major challenges they are facing is that many children are working as child labourers and it has become difficult to convince their parents to allow their wards to attend school.
The government counsel said that the Advocate General would be appearing before the court during the next hearing with details of the efforts made by the government to implement RTE Act in the state.
The bench observed that there is a need for a coordinated effort in approaching the parents and informing them about cash incentives.