Gadchiroli Aug. 22 (District correspondent) The Range Forest Officer of the Allapalli Range under Allapalli Forest Division Yogesh Sherekar was finally placed under suspension today for his alleged involvement in irregularities of large amount of money in the forest works.
The order of suspension was today issued by the conservator of forest S. Ramesh Kumar. The Sarpanch Parishad workers had launched an indefinite ‘Thiyya Andolan’ in front of the CF office for pressing up the demand of action against the RFO and enquiry into the said irregularities.
The agitation was thus withdrawn this evening after the receipt of the letter from the CF, told Mr. Yogaji Kudwe, District convenor of the Panchayat Raj Manch, who was leading the agitation.
Alleging that the Allapalli RFO had made large scale corruption in the forest works in his range, the Parishad workers had launched a Thiyya Andolan from Aug. 9 last. During all these days, the workers staged different types of agitations to attract the attention of the authorities towards their demand. They had resorted to ‘Bhikh Mango Andolan’, Dhol Bajao Andolan, Half Naked agitation etc.
The conservator of forest had already set up a three-member enquiry committee under the chairmanship of Bhamragad Dy. CF to enquire into the allegations against the RFO. However, the agitators were not ready to withdraw their agitation until the RFO was placed under suspension. They had now declared to commit self-immolation as the last step of the agitation.
Considering the seriousness of the agitation, the CF finally issued an order today suspending the RFO and the copy of the order was handed over to the agitators. Upon this, the agitation was finally withdrawn.
The allegations levelled against the said RFO will be enquired and suitable action will be taken accordingly, said the CF in his letter.
