Protesting employees postpone stir after implementation of model code

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, August 16

The announcement of election dates in Haryana and the subsequent implementation of model code of conduct have brought “disappointment” to employees of various government departments across the state who have been protesting to press for their demands.

With the model code in force now, protesting employees find themselves compelled to withdraw their strikes. In the past one month, the Karnal city, which is also known as the CM City, witnessed over 12 protests, with government employees, including doctors, nurses, staff of the National Health Mission (NHM), computer operators, clerical staff, gramin chowkidars, members and chairpersons of panchayat samitis, engineers, PWD Mechanical workers and others taking to the streets to demand better pay, job regularisation, and other benefits. Some protests have continued for a week or longer, causing significant inconvenience to residents.

Regular nursing staff from Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC), had been on dharna since August 7 to press for their demands, including upgrading their job status from Group C to Group B and for an increase in their nursing allowance from Rs1,200 to Rs 7,200. Besides, several other organisations also protested in the past one week.

Data entry operators of the District Information Technology Society (DITS) held a 19-day state-level protest in Karnal, beginning on July 15. Their demands included job regularisation, budgetary provisions for DITS, creation of permanent posts, job security until the age of 58, and equal pay for equal work. Although they resumed duties on August 5 after receiving assurances from Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini, their strike caused significant disruption for citizens seeking services at SARAL Kendras, tehsils, sub-tehsils, and other government offices.

Clerical staff, who have been staging dharna outside the Mini Secretariat demanding an increase in their pay scale from Rs 21,700 to Rs 35,400 since August 12, called off their strike after the announcement of model code of conduct. They announced the boycott of the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Pardeep Parjapati, district president, Clerical Association Welfare Society, said the government had disappointed them with no discussion on their demands during the strike. “We were hopeful that the government would call them for discussion, but the government did not call us. Now the model code of conduct has been implemented, so we have called off our strike. We will oppose the BJP in the Assembly elections,” he said, adding that they would go to people to oppose the government. “We will start a campaign of ‘vote for Rs 35,400 as pay scale,” he added.

Meanwhile, NHM workers, who have been staging a state-level protest since July 26 for the regularization of their jobs on the premises of the Civil Surgeon office, also called off their strike and resumed duty. Gopal Sharma, district general secretary of NHM Sanjha Morcha, said they had no option but to postpone strike as the model code of conduct had been implemented.