M A I N   N E W S

Stage set for confrontation
By Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Nov 8—The stage for confrontation between the Haryana Government and a section of its employees has been set with the invoking of the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA)by the state government against its employees.

The Government had decided "in principle" to invoke ESMA yesterday in view of the 22-day-old pen-down strike by the employees belonging to the general categories and the Backward Classes to press the implementation of the Supreme Court judgement in the Ajit Singh Janjua case, whereby the apex court quashed certain aspects of the policy of accelerated promotion for Scheduled Castes employees.

The striking employees are agitating under the banner of the General Categories and Backward Classes Employees Federation, a newly formed body. So far, the strike is confined to the government offices based in Chandigarh and Panchkula.

In a notification issued here today, the Government declared the strike illegal. An official spokesman said here today that all Administrative Secretaries and Heads of Departments had been asked to inititate disciplinary action against the striking employees from tomorrow.

While claiming that the Government did not want any confrontation with any section of the employees, the spokesman said it could not be a mute spectator to any act of indiscipline. He said the government had directed all striking employees to discharge their official duties, failing which they would be liable for stringent action in accordance with the law. He said the decision to ban the strike was taken keeping in view the fact that any strike would adversely affect the functioning of the government and other services necessary for the residents of the state.

The Heads of Departments have also been asked to prepare a contingency plan so that the office functioning and the essential services might not suffer. They have also been asked to prepare a list of absentees and take suitable action, as per law, and submit a daily status report to the government.

The government's decision to invoke ESMA did not seem to have affected the morale of the striking employees today, if the turnout at the lunch-time rallies outside various Haryana offices was any indication. The employees scored a major success today when employees of the Directorate of Agriculture also joined the strike. The employee leaders claimed that now barring Home Guards, employees of the general categories and the Backward Classes working in the Secretariat, New Secretariat and almost all directorates had joined the strike.

The most unfortunate aspect of the strike is the visible division among the employees along caste lines, as had happened during the agitation against the Mandal Commission report in the early nineties.

It is a strange coincidence that at the time of the Mandal agitation too the State was being governed by the Janata Dal, one of the many incarnations of the present ruling Indian National Lok Dal. Haryana was one of the worst -affected States by the Mandal agitation. While several youngsters had immolated themselves, a lot of public property, including roadways buses, were burnt or damaged.

The Government is to more than partly blame for allowing the confrontation with the employees. It implemented the judgement and reverted a number of Scheduled Castes employees, who had been claiming that the judgement had not been interpreted correctly by senior officers.

It is not known whether it was a coincidence or by design, but the reversion orders were issued when the Chief Minister, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, along with the Chief Secretary and certain other senior officers had gone on a visit to South Asian countries. Apprehending resentment among the Scheduled Castes employees, the officers manning the Chief Minister’s Secretariat obtained telephonic instructions from abroad to stay the reversion orders till Mr Chautala’s return. The reversion orders were stayed the day they were issued.

This satisfied the Scheduled Castes employees but gave a grievance to the employees of the other categories. The employees of the general categories and the Backward Classes, which were denied the benefits of reservation in promotions in the Indira Sawhny case, joined hands to protect, what they claimed, was the gift of the Supreme Court. But they hopeful that a decision in their favour would be taken by the government after the return of Mr Chautala.

The Chief Minister constituted a committee under the chairmanship of his Principal Secertary,Mr S.Y. Quarishi, to “study” the judgement. However, this failed to satisfy the striking employees. The President of their federation, Mr Des Raj Lamba, asks how can a “small” committee of officers can “re-study” an apex court judgement which has already been examined at the level of the Chief Secretary.

On November 13, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a contempt petition filed by a Scheduled Caste employee against the former Chief Secretary, Mr R.S. Verma, and certain other officers for allegedly fixing their seniority in contravention of court orders. Interestingly, the affidavits filed by Mr Verma and the other officers of the state government in the Supreme Court justified the fixing of seniority of the employees as a result of which the Scheduled Castes employees were reverted. The Government is awaiting the decision of the Supreme Court.

Mr Lamba claims that the November 13 hearing does not come in the way of the implementation of the Ajit Singh Janjua case judgement because the Supreme Court has not stayed it. Rather, the apex court directed the State to implement the judgement before June 25 last. These directions, he says, were given on February 25 in the Dhani Ram Sharma case.