PHE un-salaried employees demand job regularization, release of salary with arrear

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: The Lakhimpur district unit of the All Assam PHE Un-salaried Employees' Union has demanded the State Government to regularize the jobs of the employees concerned and to release their salary regularly along with the arrears.

In support of these demands the members of the employees' organization initiated a three-hour long protest programme from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office on Thursday. Notably, these employees under Public Health and Engineering (PHE) Department have been rendering their services as pump operators in the rural water supply schemes for 11/12 years without drawing salary. For the last time, five months' salary was paid to a section of these employees in 2015-16 through the bank account of the Users' Committee. These employees of the district under Lakhimpur and Ghilamora divisions have refrained from rendering service by boycotting their offices and work places since June 2.

In this connection, the secretary of the Association, Kiran Chetia informed that the organizations sent a representative to the Executive Engineer to know details about a government notification issued regarding job regularization. But the Executive Engineer allegedly misbehaved with the representative and filed a case at the police station by framing a fake charge against him. Resented with it, the un-salaried employees gheraoed the office of the Executive Engineer on June 2 and since then they have been boycotting their office and work place. As a result, the supply of water to the consumers has been interrupted due to the alleged lackadaisical attitude on the part of the State Government and the PHE Department towards resolving issues of the employees concerned at a time when the Union Government has aspired to supply pure drinking water to every household under Jal Jeevan Mission.

By staging the protest on Thursday, the organization submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Lakhimpur and demanded him to initiate immediate steps to regularize the jobs of the employees and to release their salary along with the arrears. Through the same memorandum, the organization further demanded to pay their salary through the individual bank account of the employees instead of the bank account of the Users' Committee, apology from the Executive Engineer for misbehaving with the representative of the organization and filing case against him on fake charge, launching of an imperial probe into the alleged corruption in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission schemes, release of compensation to the deceased employees who died due to short circuit while rendering service, along with a slew of other demands.

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