The officers of the State Administrative Service (SAS) staged a dharna at the Collectorate against alleged harassment by the leaders of the ruling party. They demanded Government Servants’ Protection Act to ensure protection to the officers and employees. The civil service association of 32 organisations of officers and employees warned the Government that if the Government did not take action within the next three months, indefinite agitation would be launched. The district administration officers went on strike on the call of the civil service association on Wednesday.
The State administrative officers said that this strike was launched following the failure of talks with the chief secretary and Chief Minister on Tuesday. They alleged that during 10 years of BJP rule, 14,000 incidents of beating, misbehaviour and abstaining from Government work took place, but no strict action was taken in these cases against the leaders. The latest incident is misbehaviour and obstruction in Government work with SDM by a BJP leader in Raghavgarh Tehsil in Guna district.
Following the incident, the entire Government staff was angry and raised slogans against the State Government. More than 35,000 officers and employees were on strike on Wednesday. On the call of the association, more than 20 organisations observed total shutdown. They submitted a memorandum to the collector P Narhari. The memorandum is addressed to the Chief Minister.
More than 60 Government services were affected by this strike. Works of nearly 5,000 persons were affected. There are six SDM offices in the district and from 700 to 1,000 cases of land revenue are heard every day. A total of 12,000 people came to Janpad and district Panchayat office, 2,000 people come daily to the commissioner’s office for work.