The Muslim News

Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir, India, (Greater Kashmir News): The strike called by the Joint Consultative Committee of the state government employees today evoked near 100 per cent response in all the districts except Kargil with all the government employees including KAS and other senior officers abstaining from work.

The JCC- an amalgam of all gazetted and non-gazetted employees’ associations and unions of all three regions of the state- had called for lock-out on November 20 to press the demand of implementation of sixth pay commission recommendations, removal of disparity between IAS, IFS, IPS and state level services in retirement age and enhancement of retirement age of all employees to 60. It had, however, exempted examinations and hospital emergency units from strike.

All the government offices in all three regions except Kargil district wore a deserted look with employees staying away from work places.
In Leh district of Ladakh, the strike was 100 per cent, while in Kargil it was zero percent.

In the civil secretariat Jammu, only some IAS officers were seen in their office chambers. Rest of the employees including all KAS officers were on strike. They assembled in the lawns of the secretariat, holding protests.
The president Civil Secretariat Non-gezetted Employees’ Union, Nazir Ahmad Mir, Ram Kumar Sharma of EJAC (Q), Pardeep Kumar of EJAC(A), Kifayat Rizvi and Showkat Ahmad Mir of KAS Officers’ Association led the protests and addressed the employees.

Later, the JCC leaders Farooq Ahmad Renzoo, Abdul Qayoom Wani and Khursheed Alam, at a press conference at Jammu, set November 24 as the deadline for the government to resolve employees’ demands. “If government fails to meet the employees’ demands, the JCC will announce its second phase of struggle on November 25,” said Renzoo.

Meanwhile, the routine work in all hospitals and health centres remained affected for the whole day both in the Valley and Jammu. General OPDs in the hospitals remained closed. However, operation theatres, casualty and emergency units in hospital remained functional as usual.

All educational institutions including colleges and schools, barring those where examinations centres are located, remained closed. Employees on examination duty alone attended these institutions in Valley.

“Today’s strike by employees can be enumerated as one of the historic events in the civil service. More than five lakh employees, both gazetted and non-gazetted, belonging to all cadres including KAS, abstained from duty to press their genuine demands,” said the general secretary Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh All Departments’ Association, Nusrat Ahmad Beigh. He said the government should without further delay fulfil the JCC demands.
Talking to Greater Kashmir, the JCC leader and EJAC (Q) president Abdul Gani Wani said, “The strike call received 100 per cent response in all the three regions of state. We are very thankful to the employees and we assure them that we will spare no efforts in getting all the genuine demands fulfilled.”

When contacted, JCC leader and EJAC (A) Muhammad Khursheed Alam said, “Although the government has agreed in principle the genuineness of the demands, it is dithering to fulfil these for unknown reasons. As a result the negotiations have failed, compelling us to resort to agitation course. Observance of strike by employees causes tremendous trouble and inconvenience to the people. We should always try to avoid it. But it is only the government’s hard posturing and denial of rights that forces us to call for strike.”

“Jammu and Kashmir is the only state in India where there is discrimination of retirement age between IFS, IPS, IAS, and local services. It is surprising that three IAS officers in civil secretariat have without informing the chief secretary drawn their salaries on the new scales given in the sixth pay commission recommendations,” said a senior KAS officer on the condition of anonymity.

In Jammu, employees took out a protest march starting from the Exhibition Ground. Employees gathered at City Chowk Jammu and started marching toward civil secretariat until it reached Raghunath Bazar where the police cane-charged the protesting employees, leading to injuries to over 10 of them.

http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=21_11_2008&ItemID=49&cat=1

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