Social forestry RFOs go on mass leave

Nagpur: Protection work of plantations done by the social forestry department (SFD) in Nagpur circle has gone for a toss as all range forest officers (RFOs), foresters, and forest guards have gone on mass leave.
Nagpur circle comprises Gadchiroli, Gondia, Wardha, Nagpur and Bhandara. There may be over 100 field staff in these divisions. Sources said all the divisions have planted at least 8 lakh saplings this monsoon season. Now there will be no staff to protect these plantations.
As reported by TOI on August 6, SFD joint director Surendra Wadhai and RFOs were at the loggerheads over allegations of irregularities in pre-plantation operation (PPO) work in their ranges.
The Forest Rangers Association Maharashtra (FRAM) has submitted a memorandum to PCCF (HoFF) and SFD PCCF, Pune, about the mass leave decision from August 9, demanding removal of Wadhai.
Wadhai said, “I’ve not received any leave application. As per my knowledge, foresters and forest guards have not gone on strike.”
A section of DFOs said, “The strike will affect payment of wages to van majoors, many of whom have not been paid for the last four months. Of the Rs12 crore towards wages, only Rs3 crore has been released till now.”
Forest union leader Ajay Patil has reiterated that if no decision is taken by the state government in the matter, the staff will start a chain hunger strike from August 18.
Meanwhile, Indrajeet Baraskar, state secretary of Maharashtra Forest Guard-Foresters Sanghatana, said, “Members of our association will not be part of the mass leave agitation. Those who have gone on protest leave should wait for the report of the committee to be out.”