ITANAGAR, Jan 10: Indian Forester’s Federation, Arunachal Unit has drawn the attention of the Election Commission of India (ECI) against the alleged unreasonable denial of honorarium for forest personnel deployed in election duties since last 20 years.
In its representation to the ECI, the Federation claimed that the personnel of Department of Forest & Environment, GoAP deployed in election duties have been denied of honorarium for since last 20 years by the Arunachal Government, which is against the guidelines of the independent norms of Election Commission of India.
Terming it against the ‘Natural Laws of Fairness’ and ‘PARITY’ which is equal for all government employees of State as well as Central government, the Federation claimed that the Arunachal government is only providing honorarium to the personnel of state Police department and denying election duty honorarium to the forest personnel and employees of other departments.
Stating that as per ECI norms, all government employees engaged for election duty are entitled to honorarium immediately after every parliament /assembly election as separate funds are directly provided by the ECI for the same, the Federation lamented that in case of forest personnel in Arunachal they have been denied of honorarium since last 20 years.
While alleging that funds meant for honorarium are either misused by the state government or embezzled by the higher authorities, the Federation fervently requested the ECI to initiate necessary steps for payment of 100% TA/DA in advance and implement the insured disbursement of honorarium to the personnel of state Forest department if deployed in the ensuing parliament/ assembly election.