 Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 28: In a first complete strike by the officials of any department after J&K’s reorganization on August 5, 2019, employees of the Department of Information and Public Relation (DIPR) on Tuesday boycotted their work and staged protest against what they called arbitrary orders issued by Director Information Rahul Pandey.
Terming the order as unjustified, the employees said that the Director has issued orders to stop salaries of 52 employees of Kashmir Division without any justified reason.
Employees locked all units, including PR and Advertisement sections, Cultural Unit, Field Publicity and establishment section.
Amid “We want Justice” slogans, employees demanded immediate revocation of the order. The protesting employees also demanded convening of DPC which has not been held since 2017, thus jeopardizing the career of employees, despite them round the clock work for the government.
While talking to reporters, Vice-President Employees Union, Bilal Ahmad said that the employees have been working around the clock every year, d Stage protest in Srinagar, stop advertisement distribution, news bulletin to newspapers
“We have a work schedule of 15 hours. We have employees who have been sent to Sonamarg to cover the event of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. They left Srinagar at around 5:30 am in the morning and will return late in the evening. Despite that salaries of 52 employees have been withheld for unknown reasons.”
The employees while protesting at Rambagh office said that they have halted all the work of the Information division Kashmir until the order is revoked and their salaries are released. “As such there will be no advertising services also,” they added. The employees urged Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Commissioner Secretary Information to look into the matter and ensure that “arbitrary order” is revoked and salaries be released at an earliest.
They demanded that their all genuine demands, including holding of DPC, should be met at an earliest, otherwise they would continue their pen down strike at all divisional and district headquarters.
When contacted Director DIPR, Rahul Pandey was not available for comments. | 