Employees to intensify stir, CS holds parleys
LUCKNOW : Defying promulgation of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) banning all protests, government employees, who are demanding the restoration of old pension scheme, paralysed functioning in several departments on the first day of their agitation on Wednesday. Even as the employees’ unions held a meeting at the PWD office on Mahatma Gandhi Marg here and threatened to intensify their stir, chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey held a meeting with leaders of State Employees Joint Council to break the deadlock.
LUCKNOW: Defying promulgation of Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) banning all protests, government employees, who are demanding the restoration of old pension scheme, paralyzed functioning in several departments on the first day of their agitation on Wednesday.
Even as the employees’ unions held a meeting at the PWD office on Mahatma Gandhi Marg here and threatened to intensify their stir, chief secretary Anup Chandra Pandey held a meeting with leaders of State Employees Joint Council (SEJC) to break the deadlock. While the SEJC and the Karmachari Shikshak Sanyukt Morcha, a teachers’ union, have decided to stay away from the strike, the agitating unions have exempted the health and power sectors from the strike.
On Thursday, the employees union would hold a demonstration outside the office of District Inspector of Schools near City Station. This would be followed up by a huge demonstration to be held at Eco Garden on February 8. “The time for dialogue has run out, we want the government to come up with a solution now,” said Sudhanshu Mohan, an employee union leader.
Many government offices like the UPSRTC, Irrigation and others located in Jawahar Bhawan in the state capital wore a deserted look or remained locked as union leaders gathered outside the premises to address public meetings after marking their attendance to evade action.
The employees are protesting against the state’s new pension scheme under which the share of the government has been raised from 10 percent to 14 percent. This also means a four percent increase in the employees’ contribution, which they are opposed to. In Lucknow, district magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma issued instructions to stop payment of salaries of three top engineers of the Irrigation department for not providing information about the attendance of their employees despite several reminders.
Those whose salary has been stopped included engineer in-chief Vinay Kumar Rathi, Sevaram, superintending engineer and executive engineer Yogesh Kumar Rawal.
“We have sought attendance report from all departments and initiate action against those who did not attend to their duties,” said another senior administration official.
However, Shiv Baran Singh Yadav, president of the striking employees union, said they would not be cowed down by threats of disciplinary and penal action. “We gave the government enough time to think over our demands but things have come to this stage only due to their lethargy,” he said adding that the government cannot rob the employees of their democratic right to strike against wrong policies.