Bengaluru: Hardship allowance approved for Wildlife Department staff
Bengaluru: Ishwar B Khandre, the Forest, Biology, and Environment Minister, announced that a Hardship Allowance has been approved for frontline staff working in wildlife departments. This decision fulfills a long-standing demand from these employees.
Under the new order, Zonal Forest Officers and Sub Zonal Forest Officers will receive Rs 3,500 each, forest guards will be given Rs 2,700, and D grade employees will receive Rs 2,000.
The allowance also extends to staff involved in managing elephant-related issues in regions including Chikkamagaluru, Hassan, Mysuru, Kodagu, Chamarajanagar, Ramanagara, Bannerghatta National Park, and Bandipur, with a maximum of Rs 2,000 per month allocated based on conditions.
Similar provisions apply to the leopard task force in Narasipura, Mandya, Pandavapur, Nagamangala, and Bengaluru city limits, as well as Rapid Response Force staff and those in poaching camps.
Minister Khandre, during his visit to Nagarhole and Bandipur Sanctuaries, acknowledged the challenging working conditions faced by staff and outsourced employees, including risks from wild animals and adverse weather. This led to the decision to provide the special allowance.
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PM Modi, RSS strengthening wall in path of SCs, STs, OBCs: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi (PTI): Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the RSS were strengthening the wall standing in the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs, even as he acknowledged that the UPA took steps to weaken that wall but not to the extent it should have.
Addressing the 'Samvidhan Rakshak Abhiyaan', Gandhi also referred to the function held on Constitution Day in Parliament and said that it is his guarantee, that "Modi has not read" the Constitution.
"If PM Modi would have read this book then what he does daily, he would not do it," Gandhi said, displaying a copy of the Constitution of India.
Gandhi said the country's whole system is pitted against Dalits, Adivasis and backward class people.
He said a wall obstructs the path of Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs and Modi and the RSS are strengthening that wall by "adding cement to it".
"Slowly the wall (obstructing the path of SCs, STs, OBCs) is getting strengthened. Earlier, the UPA government gave MGNREGA, the land acquisition act, the right to food...those were ways to weaken that wall. Today, when I look back, I can say the UPA government did not weaken the wall to the extent it should have, it did not do it as strongly as it should have," Gandhi said.
"However, we used to make efforts to weaken that wall but they (the BJP) are strengthening that wall by adding concrete," the former Congress president said.
Gandhi said a caste survey being carried out in Telangana is a historic step and the Congress will do the same wherever it comes to power.
