Making its stand clear, contract employees under the State Government declared that they would favour any political parties that would assure them implementation of their long-standing demand — regularisation, in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
The Madhya Pradesh Contract Employees and Officers Federation stated this while staging a dharna at Ambedkar Park here on Tuesday.
The contract employees are demanding regularisation of services, implementation of equal pay for equal work and reinstatement of employees whose services have been terminated by the government.
The federation announced that in case the Government failed to respond to their demands, all the contract employees in the State would take mass leave onAugust 1 and this would be followed by indefinite strike from August 8.
Addressing a public meeting that was held on the occasion, State president of the federation, Ramesh Rathore said decision of contract employees was going to have a serious impact on the electoral outcome. “There are two lakh contract employees in several departments of the State Government who can influence at least 30 lakh votes. Thus, if the Government ignores our demands it will pay a heavy price in the elections,” he said.
Rathore informed that the Government has responded to their demand by saying that the file has been sent to General Administration Department and the Government was planning to implement equal policies for all its employees. “However, the Government has not categorically said that it would implement policy of equal pay for equal work or it will regularise them. So, we reject these half-baked ideas and demand the Government to fulfil our demand without any conditions whatsoever,” he said.
Rathore alleged that contractual employees were exploited by senior officials who exercised control over appointment and renewal of the contract. “Contract employees are treated like slaves. The sword of termination of contract always hinges on the neck of contract employees. There have been cases when contract employees have been forced to hand over one month salary to the senior to get the contract renewed,” he said.
Several other employees associations including Madhya Pradesh State Employees Federation, Madhya Pradesh Class III Employees Association, Madhya Pradesh Employees Congress and Nigam Mandal Karmachari Sangh apart from others have supported the agitation.