Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 22: On the first day of the proposed two-day pen down strike, all the employees of clerical cadre from various Government Departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) struck work and observed complete strike in their respective offices today.
In most of the offices in the winter capital here including Directorate of Health Services, Forest Department, JMC, Revenue, Directorate of Education, PDD, PHE, PWD, RDD, Excise & Taxation, Sheep & Wool, Agriculture etc, the clerical cadre employees struck work and sat on dharna in their respective office premises. At Directorate of Health, most of the employees of the cadre sat on dharna in the complex. With this work was badly hit in the offices. They were demanding removal of pay anomalies of their cadre. The normal work in most of the offices was hit with the strike of the employees.
The employees under the banner of Jammu Kashmir & Ladakh All Departments Clerical Staff Association have decided to observe pen down strike on August 22 and 23. Senior trade unionists- Ravi Singh Bhau, Sukhbir Singh, Ravinder Singh, Yash Paul, Ravi Kumar, Bashir Malik, Avtar Krishan, Anil Kesar, Rohit George, Jasbir Singh and others are leading the agitation. They alleged that the Government has been forcing the employees to come out on the roads. Despite assurance by the Chief Minister, the pay anomalies of the cadre were not removed. A committee was also framed for the purpose and it has completed its job.
They once again appealed the State Government to remove the pay anomalies ( 5th Pay Commission) while granting the pay scale of Rs 4000-6000 to Junior Assistants, Rs 4500-7000 to Senior Assistants & Jr Statistical Assistants and Rs 5500-9000 grade to Head Assistants/ Statistical Assistants, notionally with effect from 01-01-1996 and monetary with effect from 19-02-2003 as already granted in favour of other cadres.
In Kathua similar protest dharna and strike was observed under the leadership of Manohar Singh and Ghulam Sabar. In Udhampur Anil Mehta, Vishab Bandhu and Balbir Singh were leading. In Reasi, Raghunath Singh and Kuldip Kotwal led the protest while in Samba, Ajay Sharma, Veena Choudhary and Hans Raj led the protest and strike.
Reports from Poonch said that work in most of the offices was hit with the strike of clerks today. These employees observed pen down strike and sat on dharna. Romesh Singh, Ravinder Singh and Gurcharan Singh were leasding the protest at Poonch district headquarters while in Rajouri Babu Ram and Gurmeet Singh were leading. Similar reports of protest and strike have been received from Kishtwar, Doda, Bhaderwah and Ramban.
Meanwhile, the clerical cadre employees have decided to hold massive protest demonstration at Panama Chowk in Jammu at 11 am on Saturday (August 23). They will move in the shape of rally to the office of Divisional Commission, Jammu at Rail Head complex here.
Follow our WhatsApp channel