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| Govt efforts of fresh talks get a jolt, strike extended till Apr 19 | | ** Situation reaches do or die stage; 'Jail Bharo Andolan' today, hundreds expected to court arrest | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 11:
For the humiliated government and the striking employees, the situation has reached a do or die stage. While the government warned to terminate their services if they did not join work by tomorrow,
the employees today put their foot down to tackle the problem head-on.
The employees remained undettered by the government warning, further extending their strike by a week, ie upto April 19, and deciding to court arrest in hundreds here Monday as part of their 'Jail Bhari
Andolan'. As per their programme, employees would reach in ones and twos three places -- Government Medical College, Irrigation Complex and Panama Chowk -- to court arrests.
Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) leader Abdul Dar, who was underground fearing arrest under ESMA, said they would protest tomorrow and court arrests in support of their demand for release of
sixth pay commission arrears.
Meanwhile, a high-level meeting was held at the police control here late in the evening to devise ways for stopping employees from holding protests and courting arrests. Police sources said a heavy deployment of cops would be made at the three places tonight to stop employees from reaching there. Raids were also planned on the residences of employees' leaders tonight, the sources added.
"It is a struggle that we cannot leave midway," EJAC leader Ravinder Gupta told reporters at an undisclosed place. He said the striking employees had been asked to lock all offices Monday.
Referring to the government warning to terminate their services if they did not report to work by Monday, ie April 12, Ravinder said they were not scared of termination as their demands were just and
genuine.
The strike, which started April 3, prompted the government to invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) April 5. The strike was earlier scheduled to end April 6 but was extended up to April 12.
Now it was extended up to April 19.
Apart from the sixth pay commission arrears, employees are demanding enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years and house rent allowance (HRA) at par with the central government employees. Dar said the April 9 offer of chief minister Omar Abdullah for "fruitful" negotiations with the employees was indeed appreciable, but talks could not be held in an atmosphere of fear and repression. He said it was unfortunate and highly condemnable that on one side Omar was expressing his willingness for talks; but on the other, police were arresting their activists, issuing them show cause
notices and threatening termination of ReT and contractual employees.
The government should immediately stop these repressive measures if it wanted talks with them, Dar asserted, saying a total of 226 employees had been arrested so far. He said the state government had totally failed to create a congenial atmosphere for the resumption of dialogue. Dar and other EJAC leaders felt that the government itself wanted to prolong the strike to put pressure on the central government to release Rs 4,200 cr against the payment of the sixth pay commission
arrears.
They said leaders of Joint Platform of Action (an amalgam of central and state employees of all Indian states) had also reached here and assured them of a strike in almost all states in the country in
their support.
Given the invoking of ESMA and publication of anti-employee advertisements in local dailies, it was clear that the government had no sympathy towards them, they asserted. They also condemned the police lathicharge on employees in Srinagar and Jammu, who were taking out peaceful rallies, besides criticising the government action for authorising police to check their attendance registers in offices.
A team of JCC leaders headed by Jaswant Singh, Ravi Singh Bahu, Sukhbir Singh, Anil Mehta and Mohammad Latif Qureshi addressed employees at the district headquarters in the region.
EJAC leader Gafoor Dar termed baseless divisional commissioner's statement that more than 80 per cent work was being done in government offices and only a little work was getting affected by
the strike.
Another EJAC leader Girdhari Lal Chanda said that the government had adopted a dictatorial attitude by resorting to the policy of repression. e demanded the immediate release of all the employees arrested
under ESMA.
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