Nature and it's gift
Photos Krishna Kumar Giri. |
Photos Krishna Kumar Giri. |
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GTA ad-hoc staff pay up by 15 per cent- Gurung promises to speed up bid to regularise casual employees' jobs |
The GTA today held a meeting with members of the Janmukti Asthai Karmachari Sangathan, an affiliate of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, where Bimal Gurung made the announcement. After the meeting, Machendra Subba, the president of the JAKS, said: "The meeting, which was chaired by GTA chief executive Bimal Gurung, was very positive. He has announced an increment of 15 per cent to all ad-hoc employees and more importantly, has decided to take all possible measures to start our regularisation process." Gurung reportedly told representatives of the JAKS that the GTA would immediately write to the state government to start the regularisation process. "Bimal Gurung has assured us that the letter will be written within three or four days, after which the GTA will wait for 21-days for a response from the state government," said Subba. "If the government fails to give any response, Gurung has assured us that the GTA will start the process of regularisation by exploring different avenues," said Subba. The different avenues, however, was not immediately known. Technically, the state's concurrence is most important as regularisation of jobs entails financial implication. "The GTA has also decided to send a delegation to Calcutta to meet state officials on this issue. The delegation will include members of our organisation," said Subba. The GTA Act has empowered the hill body to recruit employees into B, C and D categories but the recruitment has to be done through a sub-ordinate selection board. The board has not yet been formed. At the moment, there are 5,321 casual employees in the GTA. The hill body has 4,011 vacancies, according to Subba. "Even Calcutta High Court has given us a favourable ruling on the regularisation issue and we hope justice will not be denied to us," said Subba. On May 14 last year, the court had issued a directive, asking the state government to convene a meeting with the GTA within four months to decide how it would set in motion the process of absorbing the casual employees of the GTA. In the order, Justice Sanjib Banerjee had asked the state to allow two representatives of the JAKS, the sole association of casual employees at the GTA, at the meeting to decide the regularisation process. But soon after, the state filed an appeal with the division bench of the high court against the directive. The casual workers of the GTA have been demanding job regularisation since 2007. On September 17, 2009, following a hunger strike by them, the state government had given a written assurance to the JAKS. A fax sent by the then home secretary Ardhendu Sen had stated: "The government has authorised the DGHC to start regularisation process against the sanctioned vacancies in all categories which it is authorised to do as per the existing act and the recruitment rules there under." The fast was lifted following the assurance. However, the government backtracked and said the promise had been given under duress. In 2009, when the DGHC existed, there were 3,472 sanctioned posts but none of the casual employees had been made permanent. The fate of the remaining workers - there were around 6,800 workers at the DGHC then - was to be decided later. In 2011, the state government decided to do away with the six-month contract system from August 1 and included employees who had completed 10 years of services under a "pay- band", where they would serve till the age of 60 and would be entitled to Rs 1 lakh on retirement. The salaries of staff in all four categories, A, B, C and D, were almost doubled. For those who had not completed 10 years in service, the salary was increased by 75 per cent. Subba said at the moment, the lowest salary of a contract worker was Rs 5000 while the highest salary was Rs 21000. |
End 'politics of sentiment', says Harka- Kalimpong MLA: Strong foundation needs to be created for Gorkhaland |
Vivek Chhetri |
The two other main speakers, Mahendra P. Lama and Amar Lama, however, raised the statehood issue at the rally. The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has been attacking Chhetri and his team over the past couple of days, saying they were not bothered about the Gorkhaland issue. "Gorkhaland has become a signboard. One can use it to sell anything," said Chhetri. "Let's stop politics of sentiment. Just because someone in Siliguri on seeing us (hill people) says whether we want to go to Kakarvitta (border town in Nepal), we get emotional. We can simply tell them that we are not going there (Kakarvitta)," he added. However, Amar and Mahendra sought to counter the campaign by the Morcha that they were not keen on the statehood issue. "A false propaganda is being spread against us. We want to say we have not left the statehood demand," said Amar. In his address, Mahendra, the former vice-chancellor of Sikkim University, said: "The seed of statehood has been sown from Bijanbari (Bijan in Nepali means seed)...... The statehood demand, however, is slowly dying as Gorkhaland is not being raised in Parliament (by Darjeeling MP S.S. Ahluwalia). This is very sad. One cannot get Gorkhaland at Jantar Mantar or in the shopping malls of Delhi." All the three main speakers during most part of their speeches criticised Morcha president Bimal Gurung and others in the party. Bijanbari is around 40km from Darjeeling. Sources said Chhetri was likely to announce the launch of a new party on January 14. Satish Pokhrel, a GTA Sabha member, said the speeches clearly showed that there was no co-ordination among the leaders of the new front. "Chhetri's speech proves that he is working at the behest of the state government," said Pokhrel. |