DA hike| New demands of govt employees’ forum: Withdraw SLP in SC, scrap showcause notices

The protesting government employees said their other two demands were that the government scrap the showcause notices slapped against state employees who had participated in the March 10 protest called by the forum. Their third new demand is that those employees who were transferred or detained for joining the fourm’s protest should be reinstated.

The demands were added after the Division Bench of acting Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam of Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal government to hold talks with the protesting government employees. The court had also ordered the employee unions to give names of three representatives who on their behalf will meet with government officials. Senior officials such as the state Chief Secretary and the Finance Secretary should talk to the agitators, the bench observed.

These new demands were in addition to the earlier demands made by the forum. According to the joint forum, its existing three demands are that the government pay them their dearness allowance dues. They have also demanded a fair employment policy for government posts and that all contractual employees be made permanent.

Joint Forum of State Government Employees convenor Bhaskar Ghosh said, “Our first demand is that the government should withdraw the SLP. The second is that they have to withdraw the showcause notices that were issued to employees who participated in our protests. The third one is that those employees, who had been detained and were transferred to other places for joining our protest, be sent back to their earlier postings. These are our three demands and they will be added to the list of our existing demands.”

“The state government doesn’t need any monetary help to fulfill these demands, but it does need a will. If the government wants to hold talks with their employees and to do that the High Court has to step in, this shows the nature of the democracy in today’s Bengal. If the government doesn’t get the time to hold talks with their own employees, the fate of the common people is at stake,” Ghosh added.