TURA: PHE muster roll workers from Garo Hills under the banner of the All Garo Hills Muster Roll Workers’ Association (AGHMRWA-PHE) have submitted a reminder of its earlier memorandum to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma urging him to look into their long pending demands.
The MR workers have been demanding among others, the regularization of their services as per office memorandum of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (B) Department and the payment of their wages under the principle ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’, which they claim are not being maintained by the department.
The workers also sought the creation of new vacant posts for Plumber, Electrician, Peon, Chowkidar and others in every PHE Division and Sub-Division of Garo Hills as well as the regular (monthly) payment of their salaries. The workers said that at present, they are receiving their payments only after long gaps of 4 to 5 months which is proving difficult for them to maintain their families, and urged that their payments are released in time.
Another demand of the workers is the creation of Gratuity for retired MR Workers after their retirement. “After an MR worker retires, his next of kin has no other source of income to maintain the family. Therefore, there should be a policy to appoint his wife, son or daughter in his place after the retirement,” the workers said and urged the government to look into this.
Besides, the workers also sought the maintenance of 3% reservation for muster rolls with disabilities, backlog vacancies for which since 1996 should be filled up immediately.It is worth mentioning that the workers had raised the same demands with the Chief Minister last year during which time they were assured that their demands would be looked into. The workers whose dues are pending for altogether four months now had also approached the then Labour Minister last year on December 11 where they had demanded the regular payment of their wages. The Labour Minister at the time, had assured the release of their wages every three months, however steps in this direction is yet to be taken by the government till date.