Association begins fast over ‘illegal’ appointments

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, November 21

Members of the Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD) Welfare Association started a hunger strike at the Youth Welfare and PRD Directorate here today. They have accused the department of throwing norms to the wind in making 80 appointments.

The protesters threatened to intensify the agitation if the Congress-led state government didn’t quash the appointments.

They gathered at the directorate and locked the office while raising slogans against the state government. “As many as 80 unqualified candidates have been appointed as PRD jawans in the Secretariat recently,” they said.

The members who sat on a hunger strike are Beer Singh Rawat and Mehar Singh Lodhi.

Pramod Mandrawal, state president of the PRD Welfare Association, said memorandums were given to the officials concerned and public representatives, but to no avail. “Unqualified candidates have been appointed as PRD jawans in the Secretariat by violating rules and regulations. Such appointments should be quashed. PRD jawans should be covered under an insurance scheme and Rs 10 lakh monetary compensation should be given to families of jawans who die during duty hours,” he added.

Sunil Chauhan, Veenat Chettri, VS Saini, Sunil Juyal and Avnish Saini were among the protesters.