Tiger protectors sans pay for 6 mths

Nagpur: At a time when Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government is taking several green initiatives, grants of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) have been stuck with finance and forest ministries depriving salary to 99 Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) jawans for the past 6 months.
Of the 99 field staff, 73 are forest guards and 26 are forest watchers. Of the 99 employees, 62 have been transferred. The worst plight of these employees is that as they have not received old salary, they will not be paid at the new place of posting.
“Can you imagine our plight? We protect rich natural wealth and now ourselves need economic protection, especially during the Covid times,” said the staffers. The last time when these field staffers were paid was 25% of the salary of March. Since then, there is no salary for April, May, June, July and August. They may also have to wait for this month as finance and forest ministries are sitting over the files.
Pench deputy director Amlendu Pathak said, “We have submitted proposal to the forest ministry for release of grants in July, but it has not been released yet.”
The entire STPF cadre, which was announced in 2008 on the recommendation of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), is demoralized due to delayed salaries. On September 2, the government released Rs4.42 crore towards salary grants for Tadoba-Andhari (Rs1.48 crore), Melghat (Rs1.54 crore), and Navegaon-Nagzira (Rs1.39 crore) tiger reserves.
“These three reserves could get grants as they sent separate proposal for salary payment. Pench had sent a consolidated proposal,” sources said.
The STPF field staff on condition of anonymity said, “Things have gone from bad to worse during new forest minister’s regime. When we inquired, we were told that NTCA sanctioned annual plan of operations (APO) grants on July 9, 2020. The proposal was sent to the state on July 22. Shockingly, for two months it has been kept pending.”
Apart from salary, these STPF jawans have not received ration and tiger reserve allowance for the past one year and uniform allowance too. They have also not got medical and TA/DA bills. “We are somehow making both ends meet by borrowing. As rent has not been paid, our landlords have asked to vacate houses. Grocery shop-owners have also stopped supply,” a section of them said.
Officials said a separate GR should be issued for salary grants directing there should not be delay in payment of salaries and should be paid from April, first month of financial year. However, there is a separate GR issued on November 22, 1994, which states that if employees are not paid for six months, interest will be charged as per the current rate.