Over 15,000 Delhi Government employees belonging to the Delhi Administrative Sub-ordinate Services (DASS) went on a one-day strike on Wednesday, pressing for their demands. They have been demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission and restructuring of the cadre for creating more avenues for their promotions.
Around 2,000-3,000 employees of DASS cadre staged dharna at Jantar Mantar demanding the Ministry of Finance to fulfil their demands. They also submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister's Office, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Home Affairs. The work of several public dealing departments such as Trade and Taxes, Education, Electoral Office and Players' building remained disrupted due to strike. The employees have decided that they would boycott the Assembly polls if their demands are not met. They alleged that the Union Ministry of Finance was least interested in their demands despite no financial implications on the Centre.
DASS Union representative Anuj Gupta claimed that the strike was successful and attendance of all Delhi Government offices was low. They have given one-week time to the Ministry to consider their demands.It may be recalled that the DASS cadre employees had gone on a hunger strike on September 16 but none of their demands were accepted by the administration despite assurances by the Chief Secretary.
The Chief Secretary had written three letters to the Union Finance Ministry, requesting to de-link pay-scale of common category employees of the city administration from other Union Territories. The recent letter was written to the Finance Ministry on November 26.
In his letter, Spolia said, “It is evidently clear that Delhi has a special status as compared to other Union Territories, therefore, the Government of NCT of Delhi would like to request the pay scales of common category employees of Delhi may be de-linked with other Union Territories and notified separately as Government of Delhi has its own consolidated fund and expenditure on this account and should be borne by the State Government. In other words no financial assistance would be required from the Centre.”
According to employees, former Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal in his 49-day tenure has promised to fulfil their demand but nothing was done then too.The DASS members alleged that they have been discriminated by both the State Government and the Central Government for the past many years.
“In case these demands are not met, the movement will be intensified and the functioning of important departments may get affected. The employees can never be held responsible as onus is on the Government to fulfil these legitimate demands in a time-bound manner. The Government is competent enough to resolve all these issues, if they wish,” said employees of DASS cadre.