The government employees under the banner of Confederation of Service Association of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) have challege the government to concede their demands or face consequences.
The government and the CoSAAP on December 20 had entered into an agreement that the new pay scale would be implemented from January 2009 with notional fixation of pay from January 2006 and arrears of six months, starting from July 1 to December 31 this year would be released in two installments during 2010-2011 and 2011-2012.
Though the CoSAAP had initially agreed the offer but disapproval from its district units had forced the confederation to reject the same and in a letter to Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu yesterday, the CoSAAP threatened to launch its third phase of agitation in the form of non-cooperation movement from January 5 if the demands were not fulfilled in toto.
Addressing a newsconference here this evening Khandu disclosed that the government was supposed to issue notification of implementation of new pay scale as agreed upon earlier but the movement of the CoSAAP forced him to put it in hold and to think alternately.
“In the event of CoSAAP not agreeing to accept the pay package, the state government has decided to refer to an expert headed by a retired High Court judge the entire issue pertaining to the feasibility of implementation of the recommendations of the SPC for the employees after assessing the resources position of the government,” Khandu stated.
He said, the government had already made its intention clear for the welfare of the employees and if they continue to exert pressure by threatening democratic movement, the government would deal it firmly and would be constraint to invoke provisions of ESMA along with all its penal provisions as well as other stringent measures in the nature of ‘no work no pay’, break in services, dies-non and forfeiture of services.
While terming the disapproval of the pay package by CoSAAP as ‘unfortunate’, the chief minister called upon the agitating employees not to be misled by any rumors that the government was not willing to implement the SPC recommendations in spite of available resources.
For implementing the SPC proposal from January 2009 without any arrear benefit, the government must augment its resources and therefore, accommodated its employees demand beyond its present means. Any further accommodation would mean compromising the interest of the development of the state severely, he added.
Reacting to rumors the chief minister disclosed that no central assistance as alleged by a section of employees, had been made available till date for implementation of the SPC recommendations.
Earlier, in the day a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) was convened where majority of the MLAs endorsed the decision of the government.
The Chief Minister also convened a cabinet meeting in the evening in this regard. (UNI)