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| Employees' strike adds to peoples woes, government still adamant | | Avoidable Confrontation | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Aug 7: Convinced that the NC-Congress coalition government would not concede their demands ranging from release of arrears as per the sixth pay commission's recommendations to enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years to regularization of daily wagers and so on, the poor employees struck work for two days on August 5 and 6, thus adding to the woes of the people. They had hoped that the action would make the government see reason and concede their genuine demands. But it has not happened. The result is that the hapless employees have decided to again boycott work on September 6, 7 and 8 to be followed by the secretariat gherao on September 9 across the state to force the "adamant and insensitive" authorities to do the needful. This means they have given a month's time to the government to settle the issue so that the impending strike could be averted. Fair enough. It's good that the employees have shown maturity and given sufficient time to the state government. The gesture of the poor employees needs to be properly reciprocated by the state government.
It needs to be underlined the employees - approximately 4.5 lakh - have been struggling to achieve their demands since the beginning of 2009, when they had taken to streets for the first time demanding, among other things, release of arrears due to them as a result of the acceptance of the sixth pay commission's report. The 2009 strike had culminated into an agreement between the striking employees the government. The government had held out a categorical assurance that the arrears would be released by August 2009. But the government did not honour the commitment. It went back on its solemn commitment much to the chagrin of the reasonable and accommodating employees. The immediate fall-out of the government's betrayal was 10-day-long strike in April 2010. The employees, who couldnot afford a relentless struggle for obvious reasons, including the need to meet the day-to-day needs of their families, had to rejoin their duties, but nothing positive has emerged till date.
The call for three-day-long strike, coupled with secretariat gherao, needs to be viewed in this context. Yes, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ali Mohammad Sagar came out with a statement the other day that issue would be resolved which evoked favourable response from the employees' leadership. But the question is: Will the state government, which has displayed its insensitivity umpteen times to the problems facing the people and the employees and which has basically turned out to be a government of ministers, legislators and bureaucrats, do something concrete and conciliate the angry and discontented employees? "We welcome the statement of the minister…He must act within this month to prove his sincerity. If something fruitful transpires we will review the agitation programme. Otherwise we will go ahead with it (strike)," Joint Consultative Committee president Abdul Qayoom Wani said while reacting to the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister and what Wani said clearly suggested that the employees do not give much credence to what people say on behalf of the government to draw away the employees' just hopes and aspirations.
The government says that it is not in a position to pay the arrears to employees because as it has no money available in its coffers. The awakened employees have refused to buy this argument. "How did the same government pay arrears to IAS/IPS officers? The government says that it has no money to pay arrears to a peon, which would be more than one lakh in any case. But commissioners/secretaries and other bureaucrats were paid Rs 25 lakh each as arrears. It is injustice with poor employees," the employees have said to counter the official claim and expose its double-approach.
If what the employees have said to counter the official view is correct, and there are reasons to believe that the employees are correct, then one can say with some amount of confidence that the government is simply hoodwinking and misleading its employees. The government would do well to adopt one approach towards all of its employees. It would be construed as a criminal act in case it adopts two yardsticks - one for one section of employees and another for another section through the ministers, including the chief minister, operate. Even otherwise, an amicable settlement of the issue has become imperative considering the nature of the problems the common people suffer due to strike caused due to the official adamancy. |
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