Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, April 22 2010:
Even as Chief Minister O Ibobi has stuck to his gun and announced that the Government is not in a position to implement the 6th Pay recommendations with retrospective effect from January 1, 2006, Govt employees are up in arms against the arrest of their colleagues and slapping of dies non principle on some others.
In protest against the detention of three employees of the Public Health Engineering Department after being arrested by the police in connection with the ongoing cease work strike of the JAC of AMTUC and AMGEO, and the invocation of dies non against 55 employees of the Civil Secretariat, Manipur Secretariat Service Association and employees of three engineering Departments have decided to launch a series intense agitations including stopping water supply.
Representatives of the employees' association of the three engineering departments, namely PWD, PHED and IFCD and the Manipur Secretariat Service Association today held a joint meeting at the office of PHD at Khuyathong and discussed the strategies to be adopted for intensifying the ongoing agitation.
Talking to mediapersons after the meeting, representatives of the three engineering departments said that they strongly condemn the detention of three engineers and the invocation of dies non against 55 employees of the Civil Secretariat.
So in order to intensify the ongoing agitation, water supply, construction of dams and roads would be stopped within the next couple of days.
Forget about payment of arrears, the Government has not been able to issue an order to the effect of implementing the 6th Pay Commission.
In such a situation, instead of initiating talks to bring about an agreement, the Government has applied the dies non principle against the striking employees.
This can never be the solution, the representatives asserted.
A representative of the Manipur Secretariat Service Association said that singling out 55 employees out of around 700 employees in the Secretariat for penalisation under dies non is a threat and it should be condemned outrightly.
He also asserted that the person who had issued the order of invoking dies non is not the authorised person.
The order is supposed to be issued by the GAD.
But it has been issued by the DP.
So it shows that it is only a threat to the employees.
Informing that personnel of fire services and the security forces are also likely join the strike, the representative said that agitating employees have worked out every possible strategies to counter the action of the Government.
It is really unfortunate that the State is being led by an individual who not only misuses the developmental fund provided by the Centre but also does not understand the issue, the representative added.