Himachal Pradesh secretariat’s employees have issued a warning against the state government that they will escalate their protest if their demands for dearness allowance (DA) and arrears for revised pay scales are not met.
According to the reports the deadline has been set, and the discussion with their leaders has already been started yesterday.
Employees expressing their frustration towards the government have said that they will further escalate the protest.
“Should the government fail to respond, we plan to convene a general meeting on 23 August, followed by a mass casual leave as a form of protest,” said an employee who didn’t want to be named.
According to the report, a significant amount of the government’s fund allocation has been spent on the renovation of offices belonging to ministers while the employees remain bereft of their demands.
The expenditures highlighted show that, 50 Lakh was spent on the two offices of ministers and 19 crore has been spent on the Chief Minister’s office.
Moreover, employees also expressed that Rs 100 crore will be spent on MLA hostels which is a priority of the state government.
Further employees have demanded that their demands are met with urgency.
Himachal Pradesh Town and Country Planning Minister, Rajesh Dharmani was under attack today by the agitating HP State Secretariat Service Employees Federation for having warned them to side with the government or lose their existing benefits as the state was in financial crisis.
The Federation termed his remarks as unjustified and said the minister should take back his words against the employees or apologise, otherwise be ready to face the repercussions.
“We object to the word benefits. It is our salary and the rights to work day and night for the government, not benefits,” the Federation members said.
The Federation, which has now got the support of employees from some other departments also across the state, is demanding their due DA and arrears pending since 2016 pay revision.
Given a cold shoulder by the state government after their General House on August 21, it held another General House meeting today in the Secretariat compound.
“If the minister is so concerned about the financial crunch in the government, he should leave the financial perks which are being availed by him without any necessity, whether it was monthly phone allowance of Rs 20,000 or entertainment allowance of Rs 90,000,” said the Federation President, Sanjeev Sharma.
He said Dharmani's sarcasm that the employees were trying to become leaders was unfortunate. Sharma said even the former Chief Minister, Shanta Kumar, who was considered very strict and brought a ‘No Work No Pay policy’ for employees, had also once remarked that he could not run the government without employees.
The Federation President said if the government did not mediate and call them for talks Tuesday over their demands, they would chalk out further strategies to press for their demand after the Monsoon session of the state Assembly.
The Federation members criticized the Congress ministers for lavish spending from the public exchequer for their luxuries, houses and other facilities and said the employees, who are the backbone of any government, are not being given their due. “But this can not go on. If the government does not agree to our demands, it should be ready to get exposed day by day,” they said.
The Federation however clarified that it would not report to any agitation during the Assembly session from August 27 to September 9.
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