A CORRESPONDENT
ITANAGAR: The Arunachal Panchayati Raj Contractual Employees Forum (APRCEF) has demanded that the State Government should fulfil the long-pending demand for pay enhancement according to the 7th Pay Commission and regularization or post creation in the Panchayat Raj department.
In case of failure to address the demand, the forum has decided to launch a series of democratic movements in the State.
Addressing mediapersons at the press club here today, APRCEF general secretary T Yangfo said that the PR department had assured to fulfil the demand of the contractual employees within two months in the month of March this year. However, it remained just a verbal assurance with no implementation in reality.
He said that following the proposed democratic movement by the forum, a committee was set up to look into the matter headed by the PR secretary. It was assured to fulfil the grievances of the employees within a couple of months.
Yangfo said that though one of the demands for the timely release of staff salary was fulfilled by the Minister concerned, the pay enhancement of the employees and regularization or post creation in the department is yet to be fulfilled.
"We believe that the State Government will soon look into our concerns and act upon it accordingly. If our demands are not met on time, the forum will not only launch democratic movement but also seek legal help from the human rights organizations," he said.
He said the 1,255 contractual employees have been serving the State for more than a decade, but surprisingly till date there is no enhancement in salary. Despite being recruited under Group-C category through competitive exams, the employees are being treated as daily wage workers.
"Moreover, treating the qualified contractual staff at par the daily wage earners seems to be serious discrimination to our interest and abilities. Whereas the salary of same grade staff in other departments are being enhanced looking into the basis requirement of this inflation era," he added.
The forum also refused the pay enhancement of 1,066 contractual employees, leaving behind the rest. It said that the pay enhancement pattern according to the skilled and unskilled category of the employees is not accepted by the forum.
"The State Government should reconsider the demand of the forum for the pay enhancement of the entire 1,255 employees in phase-wise manner or in one go. We strongly deny the pay enhancement pattern and are not ready to accept it," he said.
He said that the recruitment of the employees started from 2009 to 2014 under BRGF, 13th Finance Commission (TFC), 14th Finance Commission (FFC) and other Centrally-sponsored schemes.
The forum also stated that the employees are facing huge problems due to meagre salary. Moreover, the employees are too aged to apply for any other job.
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