Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 26: All J&K Non-Gazetted Forest Officers Association (NGFOA), province Jammu has urged upon the higher authorities to take action against the guilty employees who have thrashed Forest Protection Force (FPF) staff including inspector Jaipal Sharma during trouble at Sidhra Forest Rest House last week.
In a meeting of the Association held here today under the chairmanship of Ravi Kumar, president, accompanied by senior vice president, Gurcharan Singh and others, the members strongly condemned the episode that took place at Sidhara Forest Rest House on October 17. They claimed that they were unaware of the manhandling of FPF Inspector, Jaipal Sharma. They expressed regret on behalf of the Association for the episode and demanded that action should be taken against the people involved in the attack on FPF staff member.
The Association clarified that on that day, employees from far flung areas including Bani, Ramnagar Mahore, Doda etc had arrived there to attend the meeting to be chaired by the Forest Minister and message had already been conveyed to them. Most of the staff including females also had arrived the venue well before 12 noon but kept waiting till 4 pm. When some of the staff members enquired about the arrival of minister they were allegedly misbehaved by the Chief Conservator. They alleged that senior officers there failed to control the situation. The staff was made to sit there for long without food/ lunch etc. Some senior officials are now trying to create a rift between the two wings of the Forest employees for their vested interests.
The Association alleged that bulk transfers of the Forest employees made recently are not in favour of the department and some were deliberately being harassed. Even some female staff members appointed under SRO-43 were not spared. Even eight have been suspended. The new transfers were issued without applying mind and the competent staff fighting with the land grabbers has been shunt out to different places. They also demanded transfer of CCF Jammu.
They expressed gratitude to the Forest Minister Ch Lal Singh for showing concern for the employees and issuing directions to the senior officers for holding DPC which was not conducted since long.
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