Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad holds meeting with government regarding various issues

 STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) held an important meeting with the Chief Secretary of Assam on various demands of the teachers, officers, and employees of the state at the Chief Secretary's conference room on September 22.

SAKP, in a statement, said that the demands that were delivered at the 38th annual session had a promising discussion. On the demand for cancellation of the new pension system (NPS) and restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS), one of the problems of state employees, the government said, "The Union Government is continuing to think deeply about making the new pension system more efficient and reliable. A high-level committee under the Ministry of Finance is reviewing the workings of the pension scheme."

The Commissioner-Secretary of Finance department informed the government that it has submitted a positive opinion to the Union Government in this regard. The Commissioner-Secretary also informed the meeting that the issue of providing up to a 50 per cent guaranteed pension to an employee under the NPS is being considered. He said the government's share would be increased from the current 14 per cent if necessary. He said the central government is likely to issue a notification in this regard within the next two months. In the next stage, the matter will be resolved with the state employees through discussions with the SAKP. The state government will also take a decision to bring teachers, officers, and employees who started the recruitment process before February 1, 2005, and were recruited after February 1, 2005, for various reasons under the OPS, as per the latest directives of the Central Government.

Regarding the free medical services scheme demanded by state employees for the past many years, the Chief Secretary informed that the Chief Minister will launch the medical services scheme in a new form on October 2. He said a cabinet note has already been prepared for this.

The meeting took the decision to send a new proposal to the finance department regarding the increase in the earned leave of the teachers.

A committee comprising secretaries of the Personnel Department, Finance Department, and Public Works Department will be formed to promote junior engineers of various departments who have been serving in the same post for years by creating ex-cadre posts. The committee includes Nayan Kumar Dutta, a member of the leadership committee, on behalf of the council. It is expected that within the next two to three months, these problems will be resolved.

The meeting took the decision that, under the supervision of the Chief Secretary, a monitoring committee will be constituted to ensure timely promotion in all departments. A committee will be constituted with the secretary of the personnel department as the convener to prepare the rules of service in all departments, which will continuously prepare the rules of service for all departments. The committee will include five members from the SAKP. The committee will review the issue of service rules for district-level bureaucrats and take the necessary action.

The meeting also directed the Personnel Department to prepare a necessary rule to resolve the issue of the promotion of junior assistants working in educational institutions and other departments. It was decided that the Personnel (B) Department will issue a directive to include time-scale promotion in the service rules of all services in all departments. The Personnel Department will prepare a model service rule in this regard. The Finance Department will review and revise the issue of a 10 per cent increase in basic pay for hill allowance and compassionate allowance. The Finance Department will consider the increase in Patient Care Allowance for grade III and IV employees working in hospitals and GIS for all teachers, officers, and employees on the model of the Central Government.

The meeting decided that the Education Department will take one-time measures to upgrade the posts of qualified lower graduate teachers in integrated schools to graduate posts and to upgrade qualified teachers working in higher secondary schools to subject teachers under the Education Act.

The meeting discussed that the Finance Department will take measures to equalize the salaries and allowances of masterroll, work-charge, casual, khalasi/jorip khalasi, and safai workers of all departments. In this regard, SAKP has to submit a list of employees. The meeting decided that the finance department would approve the necessary funds for the recovery of the unpaid salaries of the officers and employees of the Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board and the arrears of the teachers, officers, and employees of the state. The education department will take a decision on the salary increase for mid-day meal cooks in consultation with the finance department.

Further, in a statement, SAKP said "the issue of salaries and pensions for employees is under the jurisdiction of the state government. But we are not convinced by the government's decision taken in the meeting. Therefore, we will stage a sit-in protest on October 7 regarding the cancellation of the NPS and the restoration of the OPS.

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