The Hindu : New Delhi News : Maken woos Govt. employees

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Maken woos Govt. employees

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 29. In an attempt to woo the Central Government employees who constitute a huge chunk of voters in the New Delhi Lok Sabha constituency, the Congress candidate, Ajay Maken, said today that he would make every effort to ensure that the Sixth Pay Commission was constituted without any delay.

Revealing his action plan to redress the problems of Government employees at a press conference here, Mr. Maken said: "It is only possible for a candidate from the New Delhi parliamentary constituency to raise the issues of the government employees because a majority of them live in this area, otherwise their voice goes unheard. It is not as if I have decided to take up their issues suddenly, I started my career as a trade union leader and have always fought for the rights of employees."

Accusing the Union Government of being unfair to its employees, Mr. Maken said: "There has be no enhancement of quota for appointment on compassionate grounds. The prescribed quota of 5 per cent is not enough and every effort would be made to increase this percentage from 5 to 20. I shall also ensure that the transport allowance for group C and D employees is increased to Rs. 300. At present they get only Rs. 100 towards transport allowance, despite the increase in transport costs in the past few years."

Alleging that the Government had only agreed to the unfavourable recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission like downsizing departments, Mr. Maken stated: "The Commission had also recommended that Dearness Allowance be merged with Dearness Pay if the Commodity Price Index reached above 50 per cent. The pay should have been merged on July 1, 2002, but the recommendations were rejected by the Cabinet and only accepted this year. The employees are due for arrears for the two year delay and I shall ensure this is rectified."

Revealing his vision for New Delhi, Mr. Maken said: "Apart from issues that concern government employees, I promise to be accessible. This area has a major problem of drinking water, as there is very little coordination between the Central Public Works Department, the New Delhi Municipal Council and the Delhi Jal Board. I intend to help facilitate interaction between them."

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