Section 82 in Management and Working of the Forests
82. Destruction of useless documents.
- (i) Every year, in the months of September and October the Divisional Officer and his clerks will sort the cases that have been closed for three full years, with a view to destroy those documents which may be considered of no further use. A large bulk of the correspondence may be got rid of by destroying forwarding dockets, inquiries and reminders. Many of the letters relating to questions which have been settled for three full years can also be destroyed, provided the register books contain all that may be necessary to ascertain regarding them.(ii)The original accounts rendered to the Divisional Officer by Subdivisional Officers and subordinates, and which have been filed in his office for three full years, should be similarly set aside for destruction.(iii)Such documents as annual or special reports, correspondence relating to boundary questions, to rights and privileges of other persons in the forests, to working plans and annual plans-of-operations, and to all subjects affecting the general management and history of the forests included in the division, as well as all orders of Government and circulars on important subjects, should be carefully preserved.(iv)All correspondence registers shall be preserved for twenty years. Records in Forms Nos. 4, 6 and 12 of Forest Account Code and Manual Form No. 15, should be preserved for the periods specified in the margin. The Register of Reserved Forests (Form No. 1, Forest Department Code) is an important document and should be continuously retained. Forms Nos. 2, 3, 4 of the Forest Department Code and Form No. 14, Forest Account Code, should be preserved until a working plan or other report, embodying a complete account of the history and statistics during any period considered, has been prepared or revised for the forests in question. As a general Rule, when monthly or annual returns have been reproduced or adequately summarized in printed working plans or administration reports, the original manuscript forms, if they have been retained for at least three full years in all, may be destroyed. [Form No. 4-6 years. Forms Nos. 6 and 12-25 years. Form No. 15- 35 years].(v)Those papers, which it is proposed to destroy, will be submitted to the Conservator on his next visit and his authority will be obtained for their destruction.(vi)The local Government may authorize any Selected Officer or class of Officers in charge of a Forest Division the power to authorize the destruction of useless records.(vii)These Rules apply to Conservator's Office as well as to Divisional Offices. (See also Rule 40-A in Section XIII, chapter I of the Bihar and Orissa Account Code.)
