Nagpur: Maharashtra Forest Guards and Foresters Union on Friday served a notice to the forest minister, wildlife and territorial officials challenging disciplinary action against forest guards and foresters who have refused to perform duties involving technical work.
The notice has been served after the talks between officials and the union failed on Friday. Forest guards and foresters are demanding wage revision and have stopped using technical gadgets like GPS and PDA saying their posts were non-technical in nature. The decision has affected ongoing tiger estimation work and will hit fire and forest protection work too in future.
The notice, served on behalf of president of the union, Vijay Meher, states that several representations were made to the government about wage revision but no action has been taken. The notice states that the duty of forest guards laid down in the Forest Manual 2011 does not cover use of GPS, PDA etc.
The notice has pointed out that many staffers have been issued show-cause but guards and foresters are performing all the 13 nature of duties prescribed in the manual and this cannot be termed as dereliction of duty. While the manual points out at 13 duties, guards and foresters have been doing 31 types of duties, that too without getting any overtime.
The union has urged the state government to give technical training to the staff and fix pay accordingly. The union also wants pay-scale at par with the revenue department staff.
Meher has said that till 1996, the grade pay of a forest guard, talathi and forester and revenue inspector was equal. Now the grade pay of forest guard is Rs1,800 while for talathi it is Rs2,400. Besides, the basic of forester is Rs2,400 while that of a revenue inspector is Rs3,500.
In another development, additional principal chief conservator of forests (APCCF) AR Mande has submitted to the state government on January 16 reiterating that demand for wage revision by the forest union is justified.
In a letter to principal secretary (forest) Vikas Kharge, Mande has pointed out that a proposal has been submitted to the state government for wage revision.
"Considering the increase in nature of duties, the demand of the forest guards and foresters is justified," Mande's letter states. The government should recommend wage revision to the Bakshi committee which is looking into the proposal, he says.
The proposal sent to the government also states that there is manifold increase in nature of duties of the field staff. Apart from forest protection, these duties include installation of camera traps, GPS patrolling, management of eco-development committees (EDCs) and joint forest management committees (JFMCs), handling man-animal conflict etc.
