K'taka govt staff to strike today

The Karnataka State Government Employees' Association (KSGEA) has called for a one-day token strike on Thursday to press for its demands.

Over three lakh non-gazetted state government employees will stay off their duties and take out protest marches across the state. However, gazetted officers will not join them, according to sources.

The KSGEA has placed before the state government eight demands and has urged the government to fulfill them. It has demanded facilities for state government employees on a par with the Central government staff as per the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations. It has also sought for the merger of 50 per cent of dearness allowance in basic pay with retrospective effect from April 1, 2004.

While the 'D' group employees under the Central government draw a basic pay of Rs 2,550, the state government employees are paid Rs 2,500. The employees have been demanding pay parity for over two years now.

While the central government employees get a hike in their DA credited with effect from January every year, the state government employees get it only in April/May, an association member told Business Standard on condition of anonymity.

Dharwad district president of the association Basavaraj Gurikar said that the employees will take out a rally in Dharwad on Thursday and stay away from the offices. Meanwhile, in Bangalore the employees plan to take out a protest march and submit a memorandum to the deputy commissioner.

Their other demands in clude: sanctioning 20 per cent interim relief with retrospective effect from April, 2004, raising the retirement age from 58 to 60, prevention of untimely transfer and formulating legislation regulating transfer of employees, fixing 10 years of eligible service for voluntary retirement and considering the last basic pay drawn while fixing the pension.

They demands also include considering the previous service while transferring the teachers during inter-district transfer and providing them 10 years' time-bound promotion, 15 years automatic promotion and 20 years promotion and filling up of vacancies in all departments.

The KSGEA has urged the government to drop the idea of abolishing the posts and filling up the vacancies through promotions and recruitment.

The association said that it had to resort to the strike as the chief minister, who had invited the office bearers for talks on March 2 had not said anything about fulfilling the demands.