STATE EMPLOYEES CALL OFF STRIKE AFTER HC RAP

State staff demanding old pension scheme adamant on taking fight to the finish

LUCKNOW : Hours after the Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court on Thursday banned the UP government employees’ strike, terming it ‘illegal’, the employees called off the strike and declared that they would join duty from Friday. Senior leader of a state employees’ union Shiv Baran Yadav said the employees “will respect the order of the high court and end their agitation for restoration of their old pension scheme.

LUCKNOW : The ongoing strike of state staff has cost the state government almost ₹2,100 crore in terms of revenue loss in the last 48 hours and more is likely, as the employees seem unrelenting.

According to the leaders of various employees organisations, the state government is trying to break the strike by threatening them with Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) but they have decided to continue their fight for the old pension scheme.

The offices of irrigation, commercial tax , population control, RTO, registry, PWD, social welfare , registry, excise, horticulture, women and child welfare, labour, education, rural engineering, revenue and treasury remained adversely affected on Thursday due to the ongoing strike.

The employees held a gate meeting at the of education department office and the leaders discussed their strategy to press the government to accept their demands.

They said had the government considered their demand of old pension scheme, the loss could have been avoided.

President of IDS Supervisor Association Renu Shukla said, “The state will have to consider our demands as there is no way back. The officials have misguided the government due to their own vested interest.”

The employees shouted slogans in support of their demands and resolved to not succumb to tactics of the state government which wanted to break their strike by playing the politics of divide and rule.

While the demonstration slated for Friday at Eco Garden on Kanpur Road has been called off by one of the associations, another group has decided to hold a meeting and decide their future course of strategy after their strike was declared illegal by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad high court.

“We will assemble at Udyan Bhawan office at Sapru Marg on Friday where a final decision on the way forward would be taken,” said an office-bearer of the association.

LOSS IN NUMBERS

According to media in charge of State Employees Confederation Manoj Srivastava, in two days the RTO office suffered revenue loss of ₹300 crores, registry office suffered revenue loss of ₹ 750 crores and excise department ₹280 crore, commercial tax department ₹394 crore. Other departments also suffered loss of around ₹360 crore.

Srivastava said that the longer the strike continued, the more would be the loss of revenue to the state government.

He said that the state employees were ready for a big fight this time and any use of force would be answered in the coming Lok Sabha election this year.