BHADRAVATI, SHIVAMOGGA: For the past five months, daily-wage employees of the forest division of Mysore Paper Mills have not been paid their salaries. On the 150th day of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy announced that the “state’s financial status was good, with no paucity of funds”. However, 380 daily wagers of the MPM forest division are yet to understand why they have not been paid for duties executed over the long period.
The forest division organised raw material the factory needed to produce paper over several decades. Now, with the government having decided to close down the factory, a pay package as per the voluntary retirement scheme was announced for its employees and they were paid accordingly.
Recently, the second installment of funds was released towards this payment. Still, the 380 employees whose primary job was to protect forestland across Shivamogga, Chikkamagaluru and Davanagere did not figure in this list.Jagannath Bangera, president of Watchers’ Union, said, “For the past two years, these daily-wage employees have been trying to get their salary.”
Apart from 2,000 hectare of forestland, MPM has 28,000 hectares of plantations. The Union approached the court in 2008 with a plea that the services of about 600 employees be regularised. Since then, 220 of them retired from service, leaving these 380.