Outsourced forest department staff unpaid for 6-10 months

Hyderabad: Contractual workers employed by the state forest department have not been paid for over six months now due to a severe fund crunch faced by the department for over a year, sources said.

These contractual workers include anti-protection watchers, animal trackers, drivers, computer operators and others, posted at base camps in the forests. Some are yet to get their dues for 10 months, sources said.

Department officials said they have not been able to undertake compensatory afforestation or works under the Haritha Haram Nidhi programme due to the crunch.

Sources said that annual funds release by the Central government under CAMPA (Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority) — in the Annual Plan of Operations (APO) — under which salaries are paid to contractual workers — is still pending.

A senior forest official told Deccan Chronicle, “These outsourced employees in various roles as animal trackers, drivers, anti-protection watchers are the strongest arms of the departments, but have been going on without salaries for almost 10 months altogether. Some have not been paid since January, while others’ pay have been held up since April.”

Sources also said that it was not only the CAMPA issue, but that funds were not released under the Haritha Haram Nidhi. The situation was grim and similar across more than 15 circles of base camps in the state.

“Employees have been furious and are almost on the verge of dharna due to delay in their salaries. We need funds at the local level where the problems will be addressed before escalating further,” a source said.

A second senior department official said, “We could pay the salaries till March for the employees in our base camps. However, salaries post-April are still pending, and there are other camps in the state where employees have not been paid since January.

Some officials said they requested the outsourcing agencies to pay the employees.

“As of now, we have requested the outsourcing agencies from where the employees have been hired to pay their employees and have assured them that we will pay them once the APO funds are released,” a third official said.

Rakesh M. Dobriyal, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), HoFF (Head of Forest Force), told Deccan Chronicle, “There was some technical issue in funds to be received under national CAMPA. The funds have been approved with the APO and the issue will be resolved within a week or so.”

However, officials said that they were waiting for a communication from higher authorities for the release of funds.