Nigahbans to protest against non-payment of salaries

YARKHUN: Nigahbans of Upper Chitral appointed by the forest and wildlife departments have given the government 10 days’ deadline to clear their salaries of 13 months.

If the government fails to clear the salaries by June 7, the Nigahbans will launch a protest at Booni Chowk from June 8.

This decision was taken by Nigahbans at a meeting held in Bang Yarkhun on Thursday, the participants told ChitralToday.

The participants of the meeting regretted that despite repeated appeals the government had failed to pay salaries to these workers for 13 months.

They said they were looking after newly-planted saplings of the government, checking poaching of wildlife and stopping grazing in mountains etc., but were not being paid salaries.

They said the forest and wildlife departments were passing the buck to each other for payment of their salaries.

The Nigahbans were hired by the forest department under the KP government’s billion tree tsunami afforestation project.

The Nigahbans of Upper Chitral were paid salaries after 14 months in June 2019 after they held protests and launched a hunger strike in Booni against non-payment of salaries and sacking of some of their colleagues. 

They said due to the coronavirus lockdown their miseries had multiplied and they were unable to feed their children without salaries.

They asked the government to intervene in the matter and direct the authorities concerned to release their salaries.