State Committee (Jharkhand) of Central Government Employees Association (CGEC) has decided to postpone its indefinite strike scheduled from 11th July. CGEC (Jharkhand) president and an office bearer as Secretary at Central Head Office of the organization Dr. Sahdev Ram said on Friday that the issues related to 7th Pay Commission recommendations have been raised with Central government and an assurance of resolution from there has resulted in postponing the scheduled strike at national level.
The strike was said to be supported by employees of Indian Railways, Defense Ministry, Income Tax Department and Department of Posts among others from as many as 19 states of the country. According to CGEC, Home Minister Rajnath Singh sat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rail Minister Suresh Prabhu on 30th June to reach at a solution to avoid this strike. Then Rajnath Singh called Central Government employee associations including NIFR, AIRF, AIDEF, INDWF, FNPO and CGEC for a discussion and assured them to constitute a high level committee for resolution of their problems. The committee has been expected to submit its report in four months.
A fraction of CGEC was not at all happy with the recommendations of 7th PayCommission recommendations. They had put forth a 10-point demand in front of Central government which included a minimum monthly salary of Rs. 26,000 against Commission’s recommendations of Rs. 18,000. They had also demanded to add at least 50 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) with basic salary.
Demands from CGEC included at least 5 per cent annual increment in salary, at least 5 promotions by the end of service, to fill vacant posts, inflation-bound HRA, A Pay Commission constitution at an interval of every five years in place of current 10 years, a pension which must be at least 60 per cent of last drawn salary, recognition of Village Postmen as Central Government employee, and a complete eradication of contract labourerism and privatization among others.
Ram added that the number of vacant posts has reached at an alarming level. “Jharkhand itself has some 18,000 posts vacant against a total requirement of around 39,000 posts. Number of central government employees has nosedived to a before 1994 level, which is hampering the productivity of country itself,” he said.