Forest dept employees stage protest in Swat

MINGORA: The employees of Forest Department staged a protest to press the government for acceptance of their demands in Matta tehsil on Saturday.

The protesting employees, including forest guards, rangers and others, said that they would stage a sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House in Peshawar for an indefinite period if their demands were not fulfilled.

Speaking at the protest demonstration, Jamil Ahmad, Aurangzeb, Zahirullah, Shahid Khan, Nawab Ali and others said that Chief Minister Mahmood Khan had assured them that their issues would be resolved and genuine demands would be fulfilled but no practical steps had been taken in that connection.

They said that wide gap between the salaries and allowances of forest employees, police and other departments should be ended and perks and facilities should be given to the workers of Forest Department. They also demanded the government to implement the announcement of 2017 regarding the employees upgradation and perks to facilitate the forest workers.