Around 700 Delhi government employees — of the Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services Cadre (DASS) and Steno cadre — sat in protest against the government at the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday. They said they were protesting due to “long pending demands” such as addressing staff shortage. Three of the protesters are on an indefinite hunger strike. “Our demands are very basic and simple, and can be sorted out at the administrative level. We have a 60 per cent shortage of manpower. The Chief Minister’s office sent a messgae to us that we will get a response in one hour. But several hours have passed and no one has come to meet us,” Deepak Bhardwaj, general secretary of the Government of NCT Employees Association, said. He said the strike would be intensified if they do not get a positive response from the government. “We have tried to ensure that no essential services are hit,” he said. The DASS and Steno cadre employees of the Delhi government are considered to be the backbone of the government machinery. Their demands include parity in pay structure with that of CSS cadre employees of the Centre; filling up of all vacant posts through promotion; restructuring of the DASS and Steno cadre; five per cent reservation for their wards in all educational institutions run or aided by the Delhi government; and a house in Delhi for every cadre employee who has worked for 15 years. “Last year, demonstrations were held many times at the Delhi Secretariat in support of our demands, and the government at that time accepted that our demands were genuine and assured that needful will be done. On this assurance, the agitation was postponed. Then the government changed, and the association submitted the demands to the new government — to both the chief minister and the Chief Secretary. But again, the government did not do anything,” Bhardwaj said.
