ITANAGAR, 20 Oct: The All Arunachal Pradesh Forest Workers’ Union (AAPFWU) on Wednesday conducted a dharna here to press their four-point charter of demand.
The main demand includes regular disbursement of monthly salary by the 2nd of every month and removal of retired persons who have been re-inducted in the department.
Briefing the press, AAPFWU president Lingdum Bagap alleged that “workers are facing miseries due to non-release of monthly salaries on time the.”
“A majority of contingency workers depend on salaries for survival. During Covid-19 pandemic, workers suffered a lot. There was hope that the situation would improve but things have not changed and salaries are still not being disbursed on time,” he said.
Further he alleged that due to lackadaisical attitude of the several officers dealing with the salary matter, the monthly salaries are being delayed.
Demanding that the retired person(s) who has been re-inducted in the department should be removed immediately, Bagap informed that “there are many graduate children of forest department staffers and other workers who are technically qualified, besides a few staffers who also deserve promotion, but the department has re-inducted retired person(s).”
Meanwhile reacting to the democratic movement, Principal Secretary and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest RK Singh has rubbished the allegation and claimed that the department is maintaining total transparency in the disbursement of monthly salary of the workers community.
“There were some problems and the monthly salary was delayed for a few days or week but for the last few months the system has been changed,” he said.
However, he accepted that “sometimes the official formalities and works take time.”
Meanwhile, Joint Working Committee of Workers Union oresident Changma Tajo has also joined the dharna and demanded that the monthly salary of the contingency workers of the forest department should be disbursed on time.
