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Ministerial staff resume mass leave protest, court arrest

Special Correspondent

Attempt to picket Secretariat foiled

PONDICHERRY: An estimated 800 ministerial staff of Pondicherry Government, who took out a procession from Bharathi park here to stage a picketing at the Chief Secretariat, were arrested near a government higher secondary school on Mission Street here on Thursday.

They were pressing their demands for restructuring the posts of clerks and assistants and also for hike in emoluments retrospectively from 1996. The slogan-shouting employees squatted on the road when police did not permit them to go beyond that point. They also necessitated diversion of traffic. There were dozen police jeeps, vans and buses parked in advance at the site to lift the precisionists to the Police Department community hall in Gorimedu near here.

The agitators were to be taken to what is called "Kari Godown" on South Boulevard. But they insisted that they be taken to some other premises where there was toilet facility and potable water as they expected to be detained for hours to collect the particulars of their names, designations and office they were employed for police records.

The police then decided to transport the employees to the community hall. Among those arrested included the convenors of the Unified Action Committee of the Ministerial Staff, P. Lakshmanasamy, Ms. Sundari, B. Selvamani and a few other office bearers. The staff also went on indefinite mass earned leave today in support of their demands. Work in Government departments had already been affected because of the consistent strike since December last year.

The agitators contended that when the Government could concede the demands of staff in other cadres in other departments, there was no reason why the ministerial staff should be discriminated against.

And there was power to the Government to concede their demands. This was the second time during this week that ministerial staff resorted to picketing and courted arrest after the earlier agitation on February 13. Meanwhile, a number of organisations including Indian's Care had called upon the Government to intervene immediately and prevent further deterioration of the situation.

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