Govt says most demands accepted even as guards, foresters continue strike

The strike comes at a time when Class-III employees of the education department and health department are also on strike over various pending demands.

An upward revision in their grade pay is among the demands of the guards and foresters. Currently, a forest guard’s grade pay is Rs 1,800, whereas for a forester it is Rs 2,400. They get a monthly salary in the range of Rs 18,500-Rs 20,000 and Rs 26,000-Rs 54,000 respectively.

“Forest guards and foresters are class-III employees of the state government. However, permanent casual labourers working with the forest department and class-IV employees of the government get Rs 1,900 as grade pay. We are happy for the casual labourers getting paid better but the grade pay of employees of class-III can’t be lower than that of class-IV,” Chauhan said.

Their 14 demands also include benefits of holiday pay, fewer hours of duty, allowances at par with policemen and weekly off days. They also demand that two-thirds of vacancies be filled through promotion in place of the existing policy of 66 per cent and that departmental examinations be conducted regularly so that they can get timely promotion. Filling up vacant posts from time to time to decrease workload of the staff and exempting women guards and foresters from night patrolling duty are also among the charter of the demands.

“Police constables, who are also Class-III employees of the government, get benefits of travelling and dearness allowance and benefits of holiday pay. In normal circumstances, policemen’s duty hours are fixed at eight hours per day. But forest guards and foresters, who have to live inside forest, have to be on duty round-the-clock with no provision of weekly off days. Nor are guards and foresters paid for working on public holidays, while our counterparts in the police department do,” said the GRVKM president, adding, guards get Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 monthly petrol allowance.

Chauhan also claimed that the government is not conducting departmental examinations regularly, depriving guards to get promoted as foresters and foresters as range forest officers (RFOs), despite being eligible to take such examinations.

However, Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Kiritsinh Rana told The Indian Express that a majority of the demands have already been met. “Of their 14 demands, 11 or 12 have been accepted. The rest involves policy decisions and therefore, the matter has been referred to the committee of five ministers formed recently. That committee will advise the government as to what needs to be done in the matter,” said Rana.

Incidentally, the state government had formed a committee comprising ministers Jitu Vaghani, Kanu Desai, Rushikesh Patel, Harsh Sanghavi and Brijesh Merja early this month to listen to the grievances of striking employees of various departments.

The Minister claimed that despite the strike, the forest patrolling and wildlife protection regime was firm. “Forest officers are there. So are our class-IV employees. They are taking care of daily affairs,” said Rana.

Meanwhile, 150 SRP personnel from Gondal and Rajkot have been deployed in Gir to prevent any untoward incident. “The SRP was deployed on September 10. While they have not been assigned regular forest patrolling duties, they are helping RFOs and other staff in patrolling forest borders. They have been deployed in areas where forest areas and revenue areas converge,” a forest officer posted in Gir said, adding, “Forest beat guards and foresters discharge important functions in wildlife forest management. But we are keeping routine affairs going with the lower-run staff. Hence, our Sakkarbaug Zoo and Ambardi and Devaliya safari parks are open to visitors.”