The Hindu : Karnataka News : State employees seek pay parity with Central staff

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Karnataka

Karnataka

State employees seek pay parity with Central staff

By Our Staff Correspondent

MYSORE, SEPT. 13. The newly formed Akhila Karnataka State Government Employees' Federation today urged the Government to ensure pay parity between its staff and Union Government employees.

Addressing presspersons here today, the federation leader, D.R. Venkatesh, called upon the Government to immediately take steps to merge 50 per cent of dearness allowance with the basic pay on the model adopted for Union Government employees.

"This will remove the disparity in pay packages between State and Union Government employees," he said.

`Abandon proposal'

Mr. Venkatesh urged the Government to abandon its proposal to abolish several posts and rescind its order on pension for retired employees. Instead of abolishing posts, the Government should fill up the vacant posts through promotions and appointments.

The federation called upon the Government to rescind the decision on bringing primary school teachers, junior health assistants, library employees, and anganwadi workers under the purview of gram panchayats.

The federation expressed concern over the "anti-Government employee policy," which was reflected in the interim economic policy placed in the legislature recently. "The Government's proposal to halt appointments and abolish 80 per cent of the vacant posts by December 2004 is not acceptable to us," Mr. Venkatesh said.

Downsizing of staff

The proposal to downsize the staff in Education Department by 20 per cent, in the Health Department by 50 per cent, and Police Department by 50 per cent before March 2005 was also not acceptable to the federation, Mr. Venkatesh said.

He lashed out at the Karnataka State Government Employees' Association headed by Sippe Gowda, for not only "colluding" with the State Government to deny employees their rights, but also "illegally" expelling six senior leaders of the Mysore district unit from the primary membership of the association.

"Only after the senior leaders highlighted the association's failure did Mr. Sippe Gowda start pressuring the Government for early constitution of the fifth pay commission for State Government employees promised by the former Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna in Mandya last year," Mr. Venkatesh said.

The senior leaders of Mysore district had no choice but to raise their voice against the inaction of the association over the State Government's move to withdraw the benefits being provided to the employees for the past several years.

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