Bhopal: Forest employees continue to deposit firearms in protest

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Protesting against action taken in Lateri incident , forest employees continued to deposit their firearms on Wednesday. They have deposited their firearms in at least fifteen districts of state. So far, there is no truce between forest employees and government.

State President of Madhya Pradesh Van Karamchari Sangh, Nirmal Tiwair said, “On Wednesday too, forest employees deposited their firearms in at least 15 districts including Jhabua, Betul, Dhar, Panna, Tikamgarh, Chhatarpur.

He added that resentment was brewing among forest employees after action was taken against their colleagues following Lateri incident. He said that irony was this that if a forest employees died while discharging duty, his family would gets Rs 10 lakh, while on death of a wood thief (in Lateri incident), government announced ex gratia of Rs 25 lakh.

He said that the agitation of forest employees was turning into a major movement. “Though government issued circular that without magisterial probe, no forest employee should be arrested but police does not follow circular and files cases against forest employees instantly in wake of incidents,” Tiwari said.

The police had arrested a forest official in wake of firing incident of Lateri in Vidisha district. Some forest employees were suspended. A local tribal was killed in fire allegedly opened by forest officials as he was reportedly chopping off a tree illegally.