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Government employees to strike work on February 14

PUDUCHERRY: Around 15,000 employees owing allegiance to the Puducherry State Government Employees Central Federation have decided to go on a token strike on February 14 to highlight their grievances including delay in the implementation of Union government’s guidelines relating to recruitment rules and filling up of existing vacancies.

Announcing the decision, general secretary of the Federation P. Lakshmanasamy told reporters here on Friday that prior to the strike, the employees would stage a dharna on February 6 in the town.

The territorial administration had failed to review the recruitment rules for the last 30 years. As per the Central Government guidelines all the States had to review the recruitment rules every five years, he said, adding that they had informed the administration several times about the need to review the rules. Accusing the government of being “apathetic” to the cause of the employees, he said around 3,000 vacancies were yet to be filled in various departments. Several posts created by the government got lapsed owing to the delay in appointment of the staff, he said.

Mr. Lakshmanasamy said they were also concerned about the present financial position of the Union Territory. “If the government failed to take certain corrective steps there would not be enough funds to provide salary for the employees from February,” he further said.

It was not advisable to seek separate Statehood for the Union Territory in view of the present financial position.

Quoting relevant portions of the 12th Finance Commission report, Mr. Lakshmanasamy said the Union Government was unlikely to accord special status for the Union Territory. He said the territorial administration should now start taking steps for internal mobilisation of resources rather than waiting for the Centre to provide financial assistance.

He criticised the administration for “trying to drive a wedge between the employees and the public by making false claims on the percentage of amount spent on salary to the government staff from the budgetary allocation.” Only around one per cent of the total budget was spent as Dearness Allowance for the government employees, he said. Mr. Lakshmanasamy also flayed the government for not taking steps to control the price of commodities sold in UT. He said according to the statistics available for April 2007 provided by the Ministry of labour and Employment, the consumer price index for the UT was higher than that of Chennai.

He said the government should seriously look into the issue of price rise as the tax rate in UT was much lower than that in Tamil Nadu.

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