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| Govt comes to halt | | 4.50 lakh employees on tw-day strike, demand implementation of pay report | | Munish Gupta
Jammu, Feb 10: Work in all State Government offices, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and Civil Secretariat, seat of the Government, came to a grinding halt across Jammu and Kashmir State on Tuesday after more than 4.50 lakh employees went on 2-day strike in support of their demand including implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations.
The worst affected areas were Government-run hospitals including Medical College, its associated hospitals and the peripheral hospitals, where no routine surgery could not conducted or Outdoor Patients Department (OPDs) run due to the strike.
Patients have started deserting the Wards in Medical College, SMGS and Chest Diseases (CD) hospitals in the absence of Para-medical staff, who have gone on 2-days strike along with the Government employees.
Medical College administration admitted that all routine operations remained suspended on the first day of the strike and the same was the case with OPDs which couldn’t run due to non-availability of para-medical staff. Only emergency services were being carried out as they had been exempted from the purview of the strike. The ICU and CCU were also being run smoothly, the officials claimed.
Same was the position in SMGS hospital, which accommodates Gynecology and Pediatrics wings, where no routine operation was performed. Only Labour Room was being made functional which has been exempted from the strike, hospital sources said.
Medical College sources said the situation could deteriorate further if the employees went ahead with the strike. A number of patients, who turned up for medical examinations in the OPDs, were seen returning dejectedly from the hospital. Serious patients were, however, examined by the doctors in the emergency.
Normal work also remained crippled in the Civil Secretariat, seat of the Government, during winter, as there was complete strike and employees refused to carry out any work. Hundreds of employees instead of attending to their routine work assembled in the secretariat premises and held protest demonstrations holding placards demanding implementation of the sixth pay commission reports. Prior to holding demonstrations, several employees led by Nazir Amhed Mir forced down closure of offices and mobilized civil secretariat staff to participate in the demonstrations near the front gate of the secretariat building.
Separate demonstrations were organised outside Vikas Bhawan by JDA employees association, in the office of the Sheep Husbandry, Vidyut Sewa Kendra office by the agitating employees to press their demand.
The striking employees’ leaders announced that the employees would continue to mount pressure on the state government to come clean on the issue of regularization of contractual employees and resolving pay anomalies
Pradeep Kumar Sharma, one of the leaders, speaking on behalf of striking employees, warned state government against delaying implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations and urged the senior state government officials to find an early solution to their grievances.
Besides, the immediate implementation of the 6th pay panel report, the employees are demanding enhancement in the retirement age from 58 to 60 years, regularization of daily wagers, removal of pay anomalies and the enhancement of rates of daily wagers.
“Our demands are genuine and this is only a token strike. If the government fails to give us our due right, we would not hesitate to prolong our strike,” said a protesting employee. The main opposition PDP has also asked the state government to implement the recommendations immediately.
Leaders of the agitating employee said both Congress and NC that now share power in the state had promised to implement the pay commission report during the election campaign and thus they should immediately fulfill those promises.
Minister for Finance, Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather last week had reiterated the government’s commitment to implement the recommendations and had said “the employees will hear good news soon”.
Addressing the dharna, the Provincial president of the J&K Advocate Generals office Employees Union, expressed his anger and anguish over the unprecedented delay in implementing the 6th pay commission report and other demands and urged upon the state government to implement the said report immediately so that some relief is granted to the state government employees and PSUs.
However, while the non- gazetted staff is supporting the stir, the Kashmir Administrative Service Employees Association (KASEA) didn’t support the strike call saying that it was satisfied with the government assurance that it will implement the recommendations of sixth pay commission.
This is the second time in less than a month that the employees went on a strike in support of their demands. On January 28, they observed a one-day strike seeking implementation of the pay panel recommendations.
People visiting state government offices for routine follow-up work failed to record their presence in most of the offices owing to employees strike.
The striking employees have decided to remain off work tomorrow as well and have planned a massive rally from Press Club. The rally after visiting different marks of the city is planned to march towards civil secretariat.
The Government, sources said, has made elaborate arrangements to thwart the march towards the Secretariat and is planning to deploy force in strength to restrict the movement of the striking employees to the Civil Secretariat. |
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