MADA to realise 20 yrs’ addl salary of 141 employees
DHANBAD: Senior employees of the 102-year-old civic body, Mineral Area Development Authority (MADA) instead of getting the benefits of the sixth pay commission, have been asked to take pay cut after more than 20 years.
More than 141 senior employees, who were drawing a secretariat assistant grade pay scale since 1996, will now get pay scale of general office staff. The MADA management has issued a circular to realise the additional payment drawn by employees as secretariat assistant from January 1996, said MADA managing director Shashidhar Mandal.
“They were drawing the scale for which they were not entitled. The matter was pending in a court so it got delayed in implementation. After the legal clearance, the management has decided to realise the additional payment from them,” he said.
A total of 129 employees are drawing the secretariat assistant grade pay scale, out of which 87 have retired and 42 are working. After the management’s notice, the affected employees have gone on mass leave since Tuesday. One protesting employees said they will approach the high court again.
The MADA, which was set up in 1914, was the oldest civic body in undivided Bihar and looks after health, sanitation and drinking water supply of more than 11 lakh population in colliery areas of Dhanbad and Bokaro.
At present, these employees were drawing pay scale between `5,500 and `9,000 but after the notice they will be paid between `4,000 and `6,000 pay scale.
Though earlier the MADA management issued a notice for lowering the grade of these employees in 2010, employees challenged it in the high court. The employees, however, withdrew the case in March 2016.
“The state development commissioner set up a high level committee under BPL Das to assess status of the MADA employees. The committee endorsed our status of secretariat assistant pay scale so we withdrew the case from the high court,” said a protesting employee. “Now the state government has backstabbed us.”
They were drawing the scale for which they were not entitled. The matter was pending in a court so it got delayed in implementation SHASHIDHAR MANDAL, MADA managing director