Govt goes tough on its employees: Srinagar, Oct 5: Toughening the stand against its employees, Jammu and Kashmir government Saturday said it will think over enhancement in retirement age only if the Assembly passes a resolution on the issue. It said law will take its own course on employees’ strike as they continue to be on warpath despite all their demands being met except enhancement of retirement age. Replying on the issue of employees strike raised by legislators of opposition PDP, BJP and CPI (M) in the State Legislative Assembly, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather said a sizeable number of employees and unemployed youth were against enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60 years. He, however, left the issue to the House by stating, “Let all the legislators give their views on the issue and pass a resolution, after that government will take a call on the issue.” Rather said the employees have “developed a habit of going for strikes and also getting their monthly salaries.” “One of the members here stated that government should not impose Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against employees. What should we do, they are not ready for negotiations. We also don’t want confrontation with them,” the Finance Minister said. “But when they go for Secretariat and Assembly gherao, what should we do in such circumstances. Laws like ESMA are meant to deal with such situations. When they won’t work, they won’t get the salary and law will take its own course.” He said doctors, who don’t have anything to do with the employee’s demands, threaten that they will close down the hospitals if government doesn’t accept employees’ demands. “Why? Is it that there is no government?” Rather said. He said in 2009, employees were angry over non-implementation of 6th pay commission. “It was the new government in 2009 that invited employees for talks and told them that confrontation leads to problems for general public. The then employee leaders told us that they were fighting for the implementation of 6th pay commission since 2006. We formed a Cabinet Sub-Committee and an agreement was reached on July 1, 2009. Whatever Dearness Allowance was due, we released the entire amount. Then they said that there was a disparity between House Rent Allowance of Central employees and JK employees. They told us that JK employees get 15 per cent HRA while as Central employees get 20 per cent,” Rather said. “We accepted this demand and raised HRA to 20 per cent.” Rather said then the employees demanded release of arrears from July 2006 to July 2009. “The amount was to the tune of Rs 4200 crore. We told them that government will release this amount in five equal installments of which we have already released three installments,” Rather said. He said after arrears, the employees sought end to pay anomalies. “The government constituted Pay Anomaly Committee. The report of the committee was tabled in the Cabinet and anomalies were removed. This was for the first time the government took such a decision,” Rather said. “Second committee was framed to address the issue of Public Sector Undertakings. PSU employees were demanding COLA should be converted into DA to which we also agreed.” He said then the employees demanded the term of minimum service for retirement benefits should be reduced to 28 years. “We agreed to it,” the Finance Minister said. He said the employees came up with another demand seeking regularization of adhoc and casual labours. “This demand was genuine. The future of adhoc and casual employees was uncertain. We made first such law in the country. Under that law, we made it clear that those who have completed seven years in service will be regularized,” Rather said. “We sought details from the departments but some names remained pending. We extended the date.” Rather said after getting the list of adhoc and casual labours, 2800 were regularized. “The question remained what will happen to those who will complete seven years in future. We made it clear that they too will be regularized,” he said. Rather said that then the employees raised the issue of regularization of daily-wagers. “Here, we came to know that there were some fictitious orders issued by unknown officers. Even retired officers had appointed daily-wagers. The number of daily-wagers that reached to us was 58000. We regularized 56000 as the cases of rest of 2000 were incomplete.” He said the employees demanded regularization of need based casual labours. “We told them that SRO 64 states that no more daily wagers would be appointed,” he said. Rather was, however, countered by PDP legislator Javaid Mustafa Mir. “The former Speaker Muhammad Akbar Lone had passed the directions that MLAs can issue orders for appointing people for need basis. What about that direction. Is it that chair has no value?” he asked. Rather, while continuing his speech, said the government also took a major decision by enhancing Travel Allowance of move employees from Rs 6000 to Rs 10000. “We also enhanced the wages of daily wagers from Rs 110 to Rs 150,” he said. “We also kept Rs 150 crore for the employees who wanted to avail Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).” He said the salary bill of employees also went up from Rs 5477 crore in 2008-09 to Rs Rs 16000 crore in 2012-13. On the enhancement of retirement age, Rather said it was not an easy task. “We have been given in writing by a sizeable number of employees that retirement age should not be enhanced. Besides, we have received a number of memoranda from unemployed youth that government should not close the doors of opportunities for them,” Rather said. “Employees are pressurizing us on this demand by stating that do it before Eid-ul Azha or before the Durbar Moves to Jammu. I leave this issue to the House. House is supreme. If the House passes a resolution on this issue, the government will take a final call and announce its decision accordingly.” Speaking on the occasion, PDP Chief Mehbooba Mufti said there was lot of confusions over the government’s stand on employees demands. “Lot of backdoor appointments have been made by this regime. In JK everyone eyes on the government job. Government has even re-employed retired persons, is it that we don’t have talent,” she said and demanded cases against employees be withdrawn. CPI (M) leader MY Tarigami said that whatever the Finance Minister has stated was only one side of the story. “The fact is that employees are feeling discriminated. I request the government to find a middle-path and withdraw the cases against employees who have been arrested. They are your government’s own people,” he said. MLA Langate Engineer Abdur Rashid said on one hand National Conference was against enhancement of retirement age of employees and on the other State Congress chief Prof Saifudin Soz states that he supports employees’ demand. “Set the house in order first, only then you will be able to take a call on the issue,” he said. Replying to the issue of backdoor appointments raised by PDP legislators, Finance Minister asked the opposition legislators to help the government in pinpointing such appointments. BAR CONDEMNS GOVT STANCE: J&K High Court Bar Association (Srinagar) has condemned the detention of the leaders of Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) and has urged upon the government to concede to their demands which it termed as genuine. “They have been pressing for their demands of regularizing all adhoc, daily wagers, consolidated, contingent paid, causal labours and temporary employees and are also crying for removing pay anomaly,” spokesman of the Bar said in a statement. “The Bar feels that the demands made by the JCC leaders are all genuine and the authorities in power should accede to the same and not wage war against the employees and their leadership,” the spokesman said. He said in a society which claims to be governed by rule of law, it is not permissible to muzzle others for raising a genuine and reasonable demand. “It is, therefore, imperative for all those who have role to play in taking effective measures to address the demands of the employees that they should redress their grievances at the earliest and release all the detainees forthwith,” the spokesman said. Lastupdate on : Sat, 5 Oct 2013 21:30:00 Makkah time Lastupdate on : Sat, 5 Oct 2013 18:30:00 GMT Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Oct 2013 00:00:00 IST is.gd/checkads
Posted on: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:48:35 +0000
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