Itanagar, Mar 1 : The Congress government in Arunachal Pradesh can heave a sigh of relief with thousands of employees deciding to resume duty from Monday.
The stand-off between the state government and its employees ended last night after the former decided to revoke the Essential Service Maintenance (Arunachal Pradesh) Act, 2003, and reinstate the chairman of the Confederation of Service Association of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP), Geli Kamki, and its convenor Tagam Mibang.
The re-instatement of the leaders, who were arrested on February 11 and released on bail on February 16, ended the longest-running agitation the state has witnessed.
The employees agreed to resume duty from Monday and work seven days a week to compensate for the “loss” incurred during the three-week agitation since February 5.
Government spokesperson Tako Dabi, who is also the water resources development and panchayati raj minister, announced the government’s decisions at a joint news meet with chief minister Dorjee Khandu last evening.
The government decided to revoke the Esma and re-instate the two leaders after a discussion with both the factions of the CoSAAP.
The government stuck to its earlier commitment of providing six months’ arrears in two instalments.
Kamki, who was present at the news meet, said, “We have decided to withdraw all forms of agitation, including the pen-down strike that began on February 10. The state government has not immediately agreed to our demand for 30 months’ arrears, citing a resource crunch, but we have taken a lenient view of that as it has already fulfilled our main demands.”
Dabi had called the employees to the negotiation table on Wednesday after all the efforts of the government to patch up with the employees failed on February 19.
A seven-member delegation of the central executive committee of the CoSAAP, led by its convenor L. Loya, met DoNER minister Mani Shankar Aiyar last week, urging him to pursue the employees’ cause with external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee.