Forest workers, enraged over not receiving salaries for 5 months, staged a protest march in Patiala city.

Forest workers, enraged over not receiving salaries for 5 months, staged a protest march in Patiala city.

Announcement of protest in Dirba constituency of the Finance Minister of Punjab on August 18

Patiala/Chandigarh 14 August ( Ranjeet Singh Dhaliwal ) : A massive protest was held in front of the DFO Patiala office under the chairmanship of Jaswinder Singh Sauja, Sher Singh Sirhind, Jagtar Singh Sahpur, Bhupinder Singh Sadhoheri and Joga Singh Wajidpur, President of Forest Workers Union Punjab District Patiala. Despite heavy rain and bad weather since this morning, a large number of forest workers armed with their flags, mottos and banners reached this protest with full enthusiasm and shouting slogans. Addressing the protest, Punjab Subordinate Services Federation leaders Darshan Singh Belumajra, Lakhwinder Khanpur, Jasvir Singh Khokhar, Dharampal Singh Lot and Rajpal Singh Lasoi said that the Punjab government was not giving any salary to the workers who have been working in the Forest and Wildlife Department for 30 years. Moreover, the salaries of the forest workers have not been paid for the last 5 months, due to which the forest workers and their families are worried.

He said that the Punjab government is spending crores of rupees to celebrate Independence Day. But today the stoves in the homes of forest workers are cold. The government, which made promises to the people, has not made a single forest worker permanent in almost 4 and a half years, due to which there is a lot of anger and unrest among the forest workers, after staging a protest in front of the office of the Forest Divisional Officer, Patiala, the forest workers took out a protest march with red flags in the streets and markets of Patiala city. Forest Workers Union leaders Naresh Kumar Bosar, Pargat Singh Ramgarh, Amarjit Lachhru, Ranbir Mulepur, Gogi Nabha and Davinder Chaudhimajra said that If the government does not make the unskilled workers permanent by abolishing the condition of 10 years of continuous service for the unskilled workers who have been working in forestry and wildlife for a long time, Salaries have not been paid for the last five months, The seniority list till 2026 was not prepared and other demands mentioned in the demand letter were not resolved so, on August 18, a permanent morcha will be organized after holding a massive state-level protest in the Dirba constituency of the Finance Minister of Punjab.

This forest workers' protest will continue until the demands of the forest workers are met. Leaders including Gurmail Bamna, Bhinder Ghagga, Kasmir Singh, Samser Asmanpur, Sadiq Khan, Jagpal Singh, Balkar Singh Mallewal, Pradeep Kumar, Daler Singh Bosar, Satnam Singh Sauja, Gurjit Singh Patiala, Karma Singh Kathamathi, Jeet Khan, Ram Singh Lope, Praveen Kumar Bosar, Halim Khan, Jarnail Singh Hallotali etc. participated in this protest.