Mantralaya, siege within

MUMBAI, Sept 24: Hundreds of state government employees today held a spontaneous day-long dharna outside Chief Minister Manohar Joshi's c...

MUMBAI, Sept 24: Hundreds of state government employees today held a spontaneous day-long dharna outside Chief Minister Manohar Joshi8217;s cabin to protest the delay in implementation the Fifth Pay Commission8217;s recommendations.

However, they couldn8217;t get any commitment from the government, as neither Joshi nor Deputy CM Gopinath Munde were present in Mantralaya. Finance and Planning Minister Mahadeo Shivankar, too, was out of town, and the demonstrators had to hear echoes of their own slogans.

Some of the slogans that rent the air were 8220;Joshi-Munde chor hain,8221; 8220;Ram nam satya hain,8221; and 8220;Immediately implement the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations.8221;

The drama started at around 11 am, after the employees started discussing a news report in a Marathi daily which said implementation of the Fifth Pay Commission8217;s recommendations might be delayed. The report said the government was planning to appoint yet another committee before implementing the recommendations.

Word spread quickly, andthe small group swelled into a big crowd. The employees decided to seek a clarification from the CM and went to his sixth-floor chamber. After being told Joshi wasn8217;t in office, they decided to agitate outside the office till he arrived.

Meanwhile, news of the protest spread in Mantralaya and in the New Administrative Building, which houses many state government departments. Employees rushed to Joshi8217;s cabin, and by 12.30 pm, the entire sixth-floor corridor, the staircase and the fifth-floor corridor were packed to capacity. Police also became alert, and zonal police commissioner K L Bishnoi ordered closure of all entrances of Mantralaya. All elevators were closed down and after some time were allowed to reach only till the fifth floor. Constables guarding the main staircase prevented entry on the sixth floor.

Later in the day, as it became clear that Joshi wouldn8217;t be arriving in Mantralaya he had left for Pune, the crowd started decreasing. But 100-odd employees, most of whom were women, continuedwith the dharna. Around 4 pm, after confirming that senior government officials and print as well as the electronic media had taken note of the protest, the dharna was called off.

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Sailaja Gharat, chairman of Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers8217; Organisation, said they were firm that the report is implemented before September 30.