Bhopal: Agitated forest employees return firearms, refuse to accept citation letter

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Enraged over the action taken against their colleagues in Lateri incident of Vidisha district, forest employees boycotted a ceremony organised to present citation letter (given in lieu of excellent work) on Independence Day. The agitated staffers Tuesday embarked on movement to return their fire arms demanding fair probe into the incident.

Forest employees association has claimed that the employees and rangers have deposited their revolver and guns in 16 forest circles and 60 forest divisions.

Delegations of Madhya Pradesh Karamchari Manch, Madhya Pradesh Forest and Wild Life Protection Employees Association, Ranger Association and Van Rakshak Kalyan Sangh etc, forest employees are handing over memorandum addressed to Chief Minister to district collectors, demanding fair judicial probe into Lateri incident.

They are also demanding release of arrested staffers and reinstatement of suspended forest employees. Forest employees have mainly returned (deposited) their fire arms in Bhopal, Sehore, Vidisha, Rajgarh, Narsinghpur, Raisen, Seoni, Obaidullaganj, Balaghat, Chindwada, Betul, Panna, Satna, Rewa, Sidhi, Morena, Bhind, Gwalior, Indore, Shivpuri, Guna, Dewas etc.

Madhya Pradesh Karamchari Manch President Ashok Pandey asserted that Vidisha administration has taken one sided action against forest employees in Lateri incident. He claimed that without investigation, deputy ranger Nirmal Ahirwar was arrested and other forest employees were suspended. In protest of this action, forest employees boycotted the citation letter ceremony across the state on Independence Day.

Protesting forest employees are of the view that wood smuggler Chain Singh, who died in Lateri incident, had 10 cases against him in Vidisha forest division. His accomplices also have wood theft cases. Then also, government announced financial relief of Rs 25 lakh on death (in Lateri incident) and Rs 5 lakh to injured. They accused government of ignoring forest employees in Lateri incident.

Published on: Tuesday, August 16, 2022, 10:49 PM IST