Srinagar, June 4: MGNREGA Engineers Association on Saturday welcomed the announcement by Commissioner Secretary, Rural Development Department, Mandeep Kaur regarding their salary hike “very soon” and also expressed optimism that the government will meet regularization demand without any further delay.
Talking to reporters after inaugurating Shahpayeen Park at Chotipora Shopian, the Commissioner Secretary said that demands by the striking staff were “genuine”.
“MGNREGA Staff is on strike. They have been working for a longtime. Their demands are genuine,” she said, adding, “issue regarding regularizations is not within my competence but their salary enhancement is being done very soon”.
Reacting to the announcement, MGNREGA Engineers Association welcomed the statement and expressed the optimism that the government will fulfill the genuine demands in the shortest possible time.
“We welcome the statement by Commissioner Secretary, Rural Development Department, Mandeep Kaur in which she accepted what we have been saying all the way through about the genuineness of our demands,” MGNREGA Engineers Association president said, adding, “We hope that the demands are with met within the shortest possible time “so that the general public is not put to inconvenience due to pen-down strike which we have been forced to resort to.” The Association has also extended the pen down strike by four days.
Work in the Rural Development Department in Kashmir has remained affected for the past several weeks as MGNREGA Engineers Association continue with the pen-down strike in favour of their ‘long pending’ demands.
The Association also reiterated an appeal to the Lieutenant Governor to “intervene” for fulfilling their genuine demands.
Among others, the Association is demanding a hike in salary and policy for regularization as “we have given our prime of life to make the MGNREGA and other schemes a success.”
The Association says that the government formed two committees to look into the demands but has failed to fulfill promises made from time to time. “Government agreed to our demands in principle and formed two committees. The committees made recommendations but were not acted upon by the government,” the Association says.
