The agitating employees said they are getting only Rs 100 or Rs 200 as monthly salary and are struggling to make a living
Bhubaneswar: Hundreds of Class IV employees working in various gram panchayats across the state Saturday changed their protest strategy to grab the attention of the top brass of the bureaucracy. Now, they started begging at dharna location here.
The agitating employees alleged that they are getting only Rs 100 or Rs 200 as monthly salary and are struggling to make a living with this pittance. In fact, most of these employees who have worked for the state for more than 20 or 30 years claimed that their families are on the verge of committing suicide.
“Every day we are working for more than 10 hours without sufficient salary. We are not even getting the salary to make a living. Although we have invited the attention of top officials to this issue, nothing has been done so far. In reality, the state has pushed us to the street to beg for a living,” said Prakash Kumar Samantaray, general secretary, Orissa Gram Panchayat Karmachari Sangh (OGPKS).
Although the Seventh Pay Commission hiked the salary of most of the government employees, the Class IV gram panchayat staff didn’t get any benefit. Therefore, the employees demanded regularisation and immediate disbursal of arrears pending since the Third Pay Commission.
“We never got any benefit of pay scale revision or other benefits. I have only one question to the top officials, ‘Will you be able to live with hundred rupees a month?’ I am trying to manage my family of seven members, including two children, with a monthly salary of Rs 100,” said Basanta Kumar Senapati, who has been working as a Class IV employee in Nayagarh district for the past 32 years.
The agitating workers are also planning to approach the Human Rights Commission and Labour Commissioner for justice.
“In all these years we have knocked on the doors of many top government officers for getting a fair salary. However, we have decided to again approach the top officials and government with the same plea. I have been working for the state for more than 30 years and I hope that the Chief Minister would take immediate action on our issue. In reality, it is fair to say that we are even without a salary as Rs 100 can hardly be considered as a monthly salary,” said Trinath Sahu, a Class IV employee from Khurda.
PNN
