Assam: Locals protest, block NH 37, after Kaziranga National Park recruitment shuns them
The Forest Department had given out a job advertisement on April 13 regarding 90 vacant posts for forest guards in the Kaziranga National Park.
In Short
- Locals in Kaziranga protested and blocked National Highway 37.
- The locals protested after forest department recruitment ad shunned locals.
- The irate locals along with local bodies sat on a dharna.
Local organizations in Kaziranga erupted in protests against an alleged discriminatory job advertisement by forest department in relation to vacancies in Kaziranga National Park on Friday.
Irate protesters blocked the National Highway 37 that passes through the national park. The Forest Department had given out a job advertisement on April 13 regarding 90 vacant posts for forest guards in the Kaziranga National Park.
The local organizations have alleged that the reservations for the local tribal communities are not as per the constitutional norms in the particular advertisement.
"The people of Kaziranga are demanding 100 per cent reservation in all the posts. The organizations are Jeepal, TMPK and MMK that are standing together and protesting against this draconian step. They have been doing injustice to the people here and we demand that they immediately revoke their orders and pass a resolution that they are going to give 100 per cent employment to the people from Kaziranga, the locals from Kaziranga," said secretary of Jeepal Krishak Shrami Sangha (JKSS), Pranab.
NATIONAL PARK RIDDLED WITH POACHING
The National Park has often made headlines for rampant poaching of the world famous one-horned Rhinoceros. Local organizations have claimed in the past that only locals in and around Kaziranga understood the Park and can be effective in anti-poaching operations and in conservation of the National Park.
This alleged discrimination in the recruitment procedures sidelining the locals is significant in the backdrop of rampant poaching activities going on in the Park. President of JKSS, Huneshwar went on to added that the authorities violated the constitutional rights here and so they are condemning the move.
PROTESTS OUTSIDE DFO OFFICE
"On April 21, they will give us proper documents of assurance. We have been demanding that the people living in and around Kaziranga should get 100 per cent reservations in AFPF posts of the forest department including ST, SC, OBC, and women reservations as per norms and they should release a new advertisement in accordance with that. They had invited us before the DFO's office today on April 21 after promising this before a Magistrate few days ago. But they have locked the DFO office gate instead today and so we are staging this protest and have blocked the way," said Huneshwar.
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