Govt employees can tip the scale

DHARAMSHALA: The government employees’ lobby in the state, which is known for tilting political scales, has always been key factor in deciding the fate of parties in Himachal Pradesh assembly polls, for they form a formidable chunk of the electorate.

Government employees— whose number is estimated to be 2.68 lakh—have been playing a key role in the elections and successive governments too have doled out sops to woo and consolidate its vote bank among them.

Apart from it, there are around 1.5 lakh pensioners in the state. The employees make a considerable chunk of voters together with their families.

“Employees can make or break a government’ goes a popular saying in Himachal.

Their influence can be gauged from the fact that they were the reason behind the BJP’s rout in 1993 assembly elections when the saffron party was reduced to eight seats in the state assembly. Employees were angry with the Shanta Kumar-led government over its ‘no work, no pay’ policy.

Successive governments, in Himachal leave no stone unturned to appease the powerful section of the voters.

The election manifesto of BJP and Congress also attempted to woo the voters of the employee class.

BJP, which calls its manifesto a vision document, has promised to set up a pension scheme committee, headed by finance secretary to resolve dispute over wages and other financial benefits.

Besides, the saffron party has also promised to implement 4-9-14 pay scale, recruitment and transfer policy, besides constituting an employees’ welfare board.

On the other hand, the Congress also promised to implement 4-9-14 pay scale, regularisation of contractual and outsourced employees and to reduce the regularisation period to two years.

The governments in HP generally follow the trend of Punjab in terms of salaries and other benefits.

“The government has given various benefits to the employees in last five years but the major promises remain unfulfilled. So, we are weighing our options analysing parties on the basis of what they have promised this time,” said a government employee on the condition of anonymity.

He said that the government has reduced the regularisation period of contractual employees from the existing period of five years to 3 years, which is a good step but a dissent has grown among others who waited five years to get regularised.

THERE ARE AROUND 2.68 LAKH GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES IN

THE STATE