Forest Department field workers on hunger strike

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 28

The state unit of the Forest Department Field Workers’ today started their hunger strike outside the office of the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in protest against the government.

Those who sat on the hunger strike on the first day were Sardul Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Sukhdev Singh.

President of the union Jasvir Singh Jangirana said the labourers of the Forest Department worked hard to ensure green cover in the district, but they had not been paid salaries for the past many months. “While the government makes tall claims about turning Punjab into a green state, it has left the workers to fend for themselves,” he said.

They demanded that workers who had worked for 240 days in the last one year should be regularised, workers working with the forest department should be given minimum wages of Rs 12,000 per month, workers should be paid the pending salaries of 2014-15 at the earliest, and they should also be given uniform along with their equipment.

They said the Punjab government had announced that they would recruit 1.14 lakh new employees in the state, and would regularise 50,000 workers, who were already working with the Forest Department.