Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Jun 6: The ‘No pay, no work’ strike by the contingency staff of Pakke Tiger Reserve (PTR) engaged under Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Project Tiger (CSS-PT), entered the second day today.
The stir is being carried out under the banner of Pakke Tiger Reserve Workers’ Union (PTRWU), after the workers’ various representations to the higher authorities to release their pending wages (which haven’t been paid since December last year) yielded no result.
After the much publicized strike, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) cum Principal Secretary, Environment and Forests R K Singh today wrote a letter to the Union informing that their pending wages from December to March will be released within 15 days.
The union was further ‘requested to call off their strike immediately and get back to their respective camps and duties.’ The response from the PCCF came after the Chief Secretary had written to his office seeking action for the matter.
Notwithstanding the assurance from the PCCF, the PTRWU has decided to continue with the strike.
PTRWU assistant general secretary Tana Hadam Tara said that unless they get assurance that they will be paid all the pending salaries from December 2020 to May this year, the union will not budge. “We have come this far, how can we back off now and only accept the four months’ pending salary,” retorted Tana, who himself is a dog master for PTR for the past two years. Earlier, he was a part of the Special Tiger Protection Force (SPTF) for seven years.