Police action makes SAKP resort to cease work on Dec 1

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 21: The steering committee members of the Sadou Asam Karmachari Parishad (SAKP) huddled into a meeting here after ‘misbehaviour’ on its members by the police today, and decided to go for a cease work on December 1 from 11 am to 2 pm in all district and subdivisiol headquarters in the State.

The situation at Dispur Last came come to such a pass today that Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who was in Kolkata, had to ask the State Home Department to inquire into the arrest of the agitating employees. Gogoi also asked the department to ensure the immediate release of the arrested employees, and the order was executed soon after. Gogoi said that he had asked the police not to oppose the employees in staging their agitation at Dispur Last Gate.

As scheduled earlier, the SAKP staged a sit-in at Dispur Last Gate in support of their demands like payment of arrears of 27 months; free-of-cost medical treatment for employees and pensioners; paying wage to casual, muster roll and fixed-pay employees same as those of fourth grade employees; regularizing the jobs of contractual teachers, ensuring job security of workers working under various state and central government schemes in the State; increasing the earned leave of teachers up to 30 days; provincialization of affiliated schools in the State; implementation of the official language in all government offices; making adequate number of computer sets available in offices and making Assamese scripts available in them, etc.

The SAKP said that it had had a meeting with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on July 21, 2015 when Gogoi was on record assuring them that he would make free-of-cost medical treatment to employees and pensioners from August 15, 2015, besides meeting other demands of the employees’ body. However, the deadline set himself by the Chief Minister elapsed without fulfilling any of the assurances given by him, and that made the employees be on the agitation mode yet again.

A statement issued by the SAKP today said that when the sit-in was going on peacefully at Dispur Last Gate today, the police came and started to misbehave them, leading to their arrest and shifting to the field at Khapara in the city. “The police acted forcibly, and that’s condemble,” the statement said. The behaviour on the part of the police made the steering committee of the SAKP to sit instantly and reschedule its agitatiol programme of December 1. On December 1, the SAKP would resort to a cease work from 11 am to 2 pm in all district and subdivisiol headquarters in the State.     

The administration beefed up security in and around Dispur Last Gate where around 5,000 employees from different parts of the State gathered today.

Meanwhile, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) said that the government action on democratic agitators today was condemble.