MYSURU: A group of temporary workers engaged by the wildlife and territorial forest divisions across the state have begun an indefinite strike in Bandipur, demanding that the outsourcing system be scrapped and their wages be paid directly by the department. The fresh agitation comes in the wake of the government’s failure to take any concrete steps towards addressing their grievances as it had promised when more than 4,000 such workers staged a protest in November last year.
AM Nagaraju, the president of the workers’ association, said despite the forest minister responding positively to their concerns, senior officials of the department have not taken any action. “We have protested twice earlier, but nothing has changed except repeated assurances. This time, we will not call off the strike until we receive a written assurance from the government,” he said.
Nagaraju said that earlier the temporary workers were paid their wages and other benefits under a welfare framework. However, since 2017, the system was changed, and the department started routing the payments through private agencies via tenders. “This caused the salaries becoming irregular and made accessing benefits difficult. Our main demand is to abolish this system,” he added.
The workers said that during earlier protests, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, the chief minister’s legal advisor AS Ponnanna and senior officials of the department had assured action.
“Although a committee was formed, no concrete decision has been implemented at the departmental level. Officials are now passing the responsibility to the government level,” said the association’s vice-president SS Harish.
Preparations are under way to renew the outsourcing contract from April 1 for another year, Harish said. The protesting workers have also said the department officials should be held responsible for any untoward incident that happens inside or outside forest areas during the summer season, as they would continue their protests until their demands are met.