The rift between State Government employees and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has increased

Gogoi-employees clash looms large

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Jan 2: The rift between State Government employees and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has increased in the wake of his comment that his government would not bow down before the employees as far as the issue of pay revision is concerned. Reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement, Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) president Pradip Kumar Bora and secretary general Basab Chandra Kalita said the employees have no intention to go for a confrontation with the government, but if they are “cheated” in the matter of pay and other allowances, they are bound to protest it. It seems that the pay revision has turned out to be an ego clash between both the parties.

Talking to The Sentinel today, Bora and Kalita said: “Many States in the country, such as Rajasthan, Orissa, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir and Punjab, have adopted pay scale, pay band and increment that are same as that of the Central Government. In West Bengal, Grade III and Grade IV employees have been getting a pay package that is higher than that of their counterparts in the Central Government and other States of the country. In Andhra Pradesh, though the Central Government’s pay structure is not followed, the State Government undertakes pay revision exercise every five years. In Meghalaya, though the Central pay structure has not been implemented, what the State Government employees get is satisfactory.”

The two SAKP leaders rejected the Chief Minister’s statement that Grade III and Grade IV employees of the State Government have been given a better salary package than their Central Government counterparts, and said: “It’s unfortunate that the Sixth Assam Pay Commission took the model of pay scale of the Central Government pay structure in only a few cases, and recommended much less in components like pay band, increment and other allowances. We term the recommendations of the pay commission a document meant for cheating the State Government employees. The commission even made no mention of time-scale promotion, which is a very important component of the benefits due to employees. We had requested the government to rectify the anomalies in the commission’s recommendations, but the State Cabinet approved the report without rectifying the anomalies. Some top-level officials have been misleading the Chief Minister.”

Bora and Kalita further said: “Even now we appeal to the Chief Minister to call us for talks and explain to us as to how the salary structure of the State Government employees is same as that of their Central Government counterparts in some areas.”

The two SAKP leaders have appealed to the State Government employees to make their January 6 and 11 agitation a grand success. THE SENTINEL