Rajasthan government employees end first phase of agitation

Jaipur, Dec 13 (IANS) Members of the Akhil Rajasthan Rajya Karamchari Sankyukt Sangarsh Samiti staging a 48-hour hunger strike at all district headquarters of the state on Wednesday ended their fast but warned of a bigger protest if their demands were not met.

Senior Sagharsh Samiti leader Madan Singh Rathore offered juice to those staging the hunger strike in the state capital Jaipur.

Wednesday marked the end of their first phase of agitation that began last Friday. The strategy for the next phase of protests will be chalked out later, Rathore said.

On Tuesday, the government employees observed a pen-down/ tool-down protest. The employees also burnt the "Suraj declaration letter", issued in 2013 by the state government soon after it came to power.

Sagharsh Samiti's coordinator Aaayudan Singh Kaviya said that none of the declarations made in 2013 for employees' benefit had been fulfilled in these four years.

That being the reason, thousands of employees gathered at the district headquarters and consigned the Suraj declaration to fire, he said. They also vowed to continue their protest for implementation of their seven-point charter of demands.

Kaviya asked the government how it could think of celebrating the four years of government formation in the state when its employees and workers were suffering the most.

Convener of the employees' body Gajendra Singh Rathore said measures like salary cuts introduced in stationery allowance, forced retirement on completion of 50 years if medically unfit, cut in medical pension fund and its linking to dearness allowance, and withholding three increments on posting anti-government posts on social media were akin to killing the basic rights of employees.

"The government employees will give a befitting reply to these atrocities but at the right time. The protest will take a serious turn if the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission are not implemented from 1 January, 2016," he warned.

The decorum of the state government employees should not be taken as their weakness, he said and added that the government was forcing the employees to go on strike.

The committee has sought a bilateral discussion with the government.

Starting on December 8, they went on mass leave, while on December 11, they launched their 48-hour hunger strike.

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