Aizawl, April 17: Leaders of the agitating 15,000 workers employed under various Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) in Mizoram, on Thursday met Lalmuanpuia Punte, Political Adviser to Mizoram Chief Minister Lalduhoma and discussed the demand to regularise their jobs under the state government.
Officials said that the leaders of the All Mizoram CSS Employees Coordination Committee (AMCECC) during the meeting with Punte explained their demands and their difficulties, which arose due to non-regularisation of their jobs for many years.
During the meeting Punte said that the Chief Minister’s attention to the AMCECC’s strike is important and requested the agitating casual employees to discuss their demands with CM Lalduhoma.
The AMCECC leaders also thanked the government for taking their concerns seriously and arranging the meeting. Acting Chief Secretary H. Lalengmawia was also present in the meeting.
The AMCECC began their three-day strike on Tuesday demanding regularisation of their jobs under the state government. A senior Mizoram government official said that the state government has been taking steps for regularisation of the casual CSS employees and asserted that those workers, who were engaged following the recruitment procedure under the existing rules, could be considered for regularisation.
AMCECC president Malsawmtluanga Hauhnar said that they have been demanding the implementation of the ‘Mizoram Regularisation of CSS Employees Scheme’ notified on June 18 last year. “We began the three-day pen and tool down strike from April 15 after we found that the government has an indifferent attitude towards solving our demands and problems,” Hauhnar told the media.
He claimed that instead of implementing the June 18 notification, the state government recently issued an order notifying the enforcement of CSS (Conduct) Rules, 1964 and the ‘No Work, No Pay’ policy, while discussions on the AMCECC’s demands are still on. The government’s latest move was an insult to the casual CSS employees, the AMCECC president said.
He said that they would decide their future course of action if the government fails to take any positive measures at the earliest. The 15,000 casual employees are now working under the National Health Mission (NHM), Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) and other centrally-sponsored schemes. Officials said that academic activities were affected due to the strike of 15,000 casual workers.
IANS