SHILLONG: The Forest Department will review the retrenchment of 225 unarmed forest home guard personnel following their protest.
“We will review the matter and will examine how some of them can be accommodated,” a forest official said on Monday.
According to sources, it is unlikely that all will get the same monthly salary of Rs 9,100 once they are re-instated as at present the muster roll workers who avail a monthly remuneration of Rs Rs 4,800 per month are doing the same work as that of forest guards.
The forest department was compelled to terminate the services of 225 unarmed forest guards due to the financial burden of over Rs 2.40 crore per year in terms of their contractual wages.
The forest department is in dilemma as on the one hand the unarmed forest guards are ineffective to take on the militants and the poachers, and on the other hand the home guard and civil defence department is not willing to deploy armed home guard personnel fearing snatching away of their weapons either by militants or armed poachers.
The forest department had earlier written to the home guard and civil defence department to provided armed guards to protect the forest, but in vain as the stand of home guards department was that their weapons will be snatched away, a senior forest official added.