By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 30 May: State Congress President Karan Mahra has written a letter to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami demanding immediate action on the ‘legitimate’ demands of the agitating diploma engineers.
Mahara has reminded that diploma engineers from various departments of Uttarakhand state have been agitating for their ‘reasonable’ demands for the past several days. He has said that, due to the strike by diploma engineers, construction works of various departments across the state are getting adversely affected at a time when the monsoon season is not far away. At this juncture, any obstruction in the construction work can create a lot of inconvenience to the people, who will have to bear the consequences of the strike.
Mahra said that the Diploma Engineers are justified in their demands, which include the demand for three promotions or at least three promoted pay scales during the service period. He also claimed that, for promotion in the Junior Engineer Service Rules, Rs 5400 grade pay should be allowed to the junior engineer after 10 years of service. Other demands like removal of pay related anomalies with respect to the post of Additional Assistant Engineers and integration of Jal Sansthan and Peyjal Nigam with nationalisation and implementation of uniform service rules for all technical departments are also justified.
Mahra claimed that despite the demands being reasonable, the state government has not taken any action on fulfilment of the demands due to which there is a lot of anguish and disappointment among the diploma engineers working in various departments. He said that, in case, the diploma engineers decide to launch a long agitation regarding their demands, all construction and repair works related to various departments will come to a halt and this will result in huge inconvenience to the public.
Mahra appealed to the CM that keeping in view the larger public interest, action should be taken for early settlement of the legitimate demands of Diploma Engineers working in various departments.