TIRUNELVELI: Non-tribal Anti Poaching Watchers (APWs), working across Tamil Nadu for over 10 years, demanded job permanency and promotion on Wednesday. In a petition to the secretary of the forest department, Anti Poaching Watchers and Other Staff Association said while 171 out of 354 tribal APWs were considered for job permanency and promotion since 2019, none of the 765 non-tribal APWs were given that opportunity despite their seniority and completion of the certificate verification.
"The State government released the seniority list for all the 1,119 APWs, which included 354 (32%) tribal and 765 (68%) non-tribal APWs. In its first phase, the government made 56 tribal APWs permanent in 2019 and promoted them as forest watchers. Recently, a GOs were released giving the same opportunity to another 115 tribal APWs," read the petition undersigned by association's State general secretary M Praveenkumar and President T Saravanakumar.
The petitioners added that the non-tribal APWs are the residents of villages located near the forest areas of Tamil Nadu. "They are working as temporary staff for the past 10 to 20 years believing that they would be made permanent one day like their counterparts in tribal communities. They cannot even leave their jobs in search of any other job. The forest department conducted physical test and certificate verification for 243 non-tribal temporary staff for permanency three years ago.
However, they are yet to be made permanent. 20 of the 243 people passed their retirement age without permanency. The state government has given job permanency and promotion to the person who is in 562nd position in the seniority list while the person in second position is still waiting for his turn. In the past two years alone, five non-tribal APWs lost their lives to animal attacks. The higher officials of the department should consider our demand keeping the future of our children in their mind," they demanded.