Forest guards and beat guards who had camped at Gandhinagar’s Satyagraha Chhavni since October 28 packed up on Tuesday, November 3, after Forest Minister Arjun Modhwadia met their union and put an assurance on paper. What that paper commits the government to is the open question. The two demands with a price tag, a risk allowance and leave salary, remain with the Finance Department, and the union has said it will return to the protest ground if a written government resolution does not follow.
Seven days, five demands
The agitation drew frontline forest staff from across the state, around 3,000 of them by the count IANS reported via Punjab Kesari, with the Gujarati channel GSTV putting attendance on one day at about 4,000. Their charter, as set out in Sandesh and Gujarat First, ran to five points:
- a risk allowance, on the lines police personnel receive, for duty in forest and wildlife areas;
- removal of the grade pay gap between forest guards and foresters;
- compensation for working through public holidays and leave salary;
- more sanctioned posts and recruitment against vacancies;
- faster disposal of pending transfer and promotion cases.
A first round of talks on Monday, November 2 failed. Gujarat First reported that the guards found the government’s response unsatisfactory and stayed on, warning of fasts if nothing moved. A second meeting the next day, held on Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel’s instruction and with Modhwadia present, ended with union president Nilesh Bharwad announcing the withdrawal.
What was promised, and what was not
Modhwadia’s public line, reported by ETV Bharat Gujarati, was that forest staff work day and night in difficult conditions and that the government under Patel treats lower-grade employees’ problems sympathetically. He said the remaining issues would go through the required approval process. Two departments hold the keys: the General Administration Department for cadre and transfer questions, and the Finance Department for anything that adds to the wage bill.
That is where the risk allowance and leave salary now sit, per Gujarat First. Neither the minister nor the union has disclosed figures. No outlet has reported what the grade pay gap is in rupees, how many posts are vacant, or what a risk allowance would cost. The settlement, in other words, is a commitment to process rather than a decision, and the union’s threat to resume agitation is tied to a written resolution it has not yet been given a date for.
Why the timing favoured a quick deal
The government had two reasons to end the sit-in fast. Patrolling in Gir and the Sasan area was thinning as guards left their beats for Gandhinagar, a concern Sandesh flagged while the protest was still on. And Diwali week starts this weekend; the same cabinet that met on Wednesday cleared a 3-point dearness allowance increase for all state employees, which we covered in our report on the DA hike. A standing protest by uniformed staff outside the Sachivalaya would have sat awkwardly beside that announcement.
The forest guards’ grievance is not unique to Gujarat. Frontline forest staff in Jammu and Kashmir ran a near-identical campaign earlier this year for pay parity, a risk allowance and compensation for round-the-clock duty, and were told the risk allowance was off the table. Gujarat’s guards will be watching whether their own Finance Department says the same.
A second front in Gir Somnath
While the Gandhinagar camp has dispersed, forest staff in Gir Somnath had separately submitted a memorandum at the deputy conservator’s office over the same grade pay and allowance issues, threatening an indefinite strike, Sandesh reported. Whether that group accepts the Gandhinagar assurance will be the first test of how much weight the union’s rank and file give it. The next concrete step to look for is a General Administration Department or Finance Department resolution naming the forest guard and forester cadres; until one appears, the agitation is suspended rather than settled.
Sources: IANS via Punjab Kesari, Gujarat First, ETV Bharat Gujarati, Sandesh, Gujarat First (November 2), GSTV
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.