Shimla, Sep 1 (PTI) The Himachal Pradesh Employees’ Federation on Sunday extended support to protesting employees of the secretariat and warned the state’s ruling dispensation of the consequences of ignoring government staff.
The federation’s state president Virender Chauhan, who chaired a general meeting on pending dearness allowance, arrears and other issues, said the secretariat employees’ demands were justified and should not be ignored.
The government needs to think about the demands, he added.
The state government recently issued showcause notices to officebearers of the Federation of Secretarial Employees’ Unions for allegedly making derogatory remarks against it and its policies.
The secretariat employees have threatened to intensify their protest over the non-release of arrears and dearness allowance but kept the decision to go on mass leave on hold till the end of the assembly session on September 9.
Chauhan said, “There should be coordination between the government and the employees. The government should talk to the secretariat employees. It cannot ignore their demands.” Earlier governments did not ignore the employees, he claimed.
Chauhan said there were 4.85 lakh employees and pensioners in the state. “The employees are not asking for charity.” He also said the Unified Pension Scheme was not in the employees’ interest and was worse than the National Pension Scheme.
BJP leader Jai Ram Thakur had on Saturday alleged that Himachal Pradesh would soon be too debt-ridden to pay the salaries of its employees.
The former chief minister had claimed that the state government raised loans of around Rs 24,000 crore in 20 months and, if it continued at the same pace, would end up with a debt of Rs 1 lakh crore by the end of the fiscal. PTI COR SZM
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