CONRAD DIAS
Ranchi, April 29: As the daily wage drivers, computer operators and other workers of the Forest Department protest against outsourcing, the officials from the department, including the secretary are currently out of town.
As informed by the DFO of the Forest Department, the concerned officials who are eligible to decide on the protest are currently out of town.
As per the information, the Secretary has a few family commitments and is currently out of the station to attend family functions whereas the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, A.K. Rastogi is currently in Patna to attend a meeting.
Lagatar24.com tried to contact the concerned officials but they were unable to take the calls.
The daily wage workers have been protesting for the last two weeks and will continue to do so unless their demands are fulfilled, as informed by one of the workers.
Rajan Lal, Vice President of Jharkhand State Government Motor Vehicle Driver Association has said that the protest will continue and will turn into a hunger strike if their demands are not fulfilled.
“We want the department to stop outsourcing and it should not be implemented in the future as well. The decision to outsource the work was taken on April 6 and since then we are on strike. There are currently around 1,200 daily wage workers in the department,” he said.