New Delhi, Aug 18 (PTI) Bringing a major change in its organisational structure, the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday brought down its regional offices across the country from 29 to 19 for "better efficiency and reduction in administrative delays".

The ministry has okayed establishment of 19 Integrated Regional Offices (IROs) which will start functioning from October 1.

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Director General of Forests Sanjay Kumar told PTI that these IROs will bring the various offices and bodies of the ministry under one roof.

The integrated regional offices will bring offices of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), Central Zoo Authority (CZA), Forest Survey of India (FSI) and Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) under one roof, he said.

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In a notification, the ministry said, "With a view to achieving outcomes related to the mandates of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change in an improved, timely and effective manner, and for this purpose to further enhance its outreach to stakeholders, undertake coordinated action and optimize the utilization of available resources, MoEFCC has approved establishment of 19 Integrated Regional Offices (IROs) of the MoEF&CC."

"These IROs will start functioning from October 1, 2020."

Kumar said that the ministry earlier had 10 regional offices.

"If we talk about other departments then there were 29 total regional and sub-regional offices. Now there will be 19. We are doing this for better coordination.

"For example, Bengaluru had separate offices of NTCA and FSI. Now there will be one office for better utilisation of manpower and coordination and better resource efficiency," he said.

According to the reorganisation plan, these 19 IROs will be established through redeployment of human and other resources available with 29 offices including 10 regional offices of MoEFCC, four of FSI, three NTCA regional centres, four regional offices of CZA, and five regional and three sub-regional offices of WCCB in an integrated manner.

The 19 IROs will be in Shillong, Ranchi, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Bhopal, Nagpur, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Jaipur, Gandhinagar, Vijaywada, Raipur, Hyderabad, Shimla, Kolkata, Guwahati and Jammu.

"Each office will have representation from time to time. The move aims at reducing administrative delays, improving communication and for better efficiency and effectiveness," a ministry spokesperson said.

The head of each of the IRO will be called regional officer of MoEF&CC. Each of the 19 IROs shall work as an integrated regional unit of the ministry in achieving the outcomes related to its mandate.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)