Non-gazetted forest employees to stage protest from today
Non-gazetted Forest Department employees staged a symbolic protest on Monday in response to the killing of two forest officials by poachers in the Similipal sanctuary in Mayurbhanj district last month.
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Bhubaneswar: Non-gazetted Forest Department employees staged a symbolic protest on Monday in response to the killing of two forest officials by poachers in the Similipal sanctuary in Mayurbhanj district last month.
While poachers killed forester Mati Hansda on Friday night in Karanjia, Mayurbhanj district, a forest guard was killed in a similar manner last month inside Similipal sanctuary.
As part of the Odisha Non-Gazetted Forest Services Association protest, the agitating employees are also pressing for the implementation of their five-point charter of demands as soon as possible.
According to the association's president, Jagabandhu Patra, the decision to hold a symbolic protest was made at a meeting attended by Sangh representatives from the state's 29 forest zones.
The protest will be attended by 5,376 forest guards, 2,530 foresters, and 282 deputy rangers, according to the decision. These officials will perform their assigned duties but will not patrol the forest areas.
Patra stated that the symbolic protest would continue until July 8, and that if the state government does not address their five-point charter of demands, they will resort to mass agitation beginning July 10. He threatened that hundreds of Forest employees would stage a protest at Bhubaneswar's Lower PMG Square to draw the attention of the government.
Among their demands are adequate security for Forest staff on patrol duty, in light of recent fatal attacks on them by armed poachers in various parts of the state.
Locals gheraoed School and Mass Education Minister Sudam Marndi earlier on Sunday in Jashipur, Mayurbhanj district, where he had gone to attend the cremation of forester Mati Hansda, who was shot dead by poachers in Similipal sanctuary.
It should be noted that Hansda was killed by poachers while patrolling in the district's Karanjia. Two Forest officials were killed in the previous two months. Last month, a group of poachers shot and killed a 35-year-old forest guard.
