Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Forest Protective Staff Association has demanded the implementation of eight-hour job norms for forest protective staff. The staff is now being denied weekly off and faces restrictions on staying away from work on holidays. The association has submitted a proposal to the forest department demanding that work pattern should be similar to the police which ensures that a police personnel has to work only for eight hours in ordinary conditions.
However, the act has provisions that warrants police officers to work for any length of time in special circumstances. M.S. Binukumar, the general secretary of the association told Deccan Chronicle that as per the norms of the forest department the working hours of the protective staff is for 24 hours. This meant that in some cases, they would have to virtually work for 24 hours or in some other cases; they have to work for 10 to 16 hours without break.
There are also restrictions on taking leave unlike other departments. All protective staff including tribal watchers, reserve forest watchers, beat forest officers, section forest officers and deputy rangers follow the same work conditions. This was when there were only 4814 protective staff to cover 11309 square kilometres of forest land. In such conditions, eight-hour duty can be introduced only by increasing the cadre strength, Mr Binukumar said.
