PENDING DEMANDS AND NEW GOVERNMENT
New Central Government under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi has taken charge with a clear majority in the Lok Sabha election. People of the country and the Central Government employees
who suffered a lot under the UPA Government, have voted for a change.
Now it is the turn of NDA Government. Coming days will prove whether
the selection made by the voters is correct or not.
Central Government employees have to take a cautious approach towards the new Government.
As the new Government has just taken over charge and expectations are
very high, jumping into any sudden conclusion may not be correct on our
part. We have to give reasonable time to the new government to make its
stand clear on the issues agitating the minds of the Central Government
employees. Let us hope that our past experience in the 2000 December
14 days Postal strike when the NDA Government was in power, the support
extended by the party leading NDA to the UPA Government for introducing
and passing the PFRDA Bill in Parliament, the infamous downsizing order
of 2001 issued by the NDA Government which paved way for abolition of
thousands of vacant posts in Central Government Departments and refusal
to concede any of the main demands of Gramin Dak Sevaks will not be
repeated by the new Government.
The maiden budget of the new Government to be presented in Parliament in July
2014 may give us an idea on the thinking of the Government and also the
attitude of the Government towards the problems faced by the common
people and the Central Government employees. Confederation of Central
Government Employees and Workers has placed our demands before the new
Government. JCM National Council staff side has also written to the
Finance Minister and Cabinet Secretary. Our demands are not new.
Demands raised before the UPA Government are again placed before the NDA
Government.
While constituting 7th Central
Pay Commission the UPA Government has refused to include the main
demands of the Central Government employees in the terms of reference
viz: (1) Grant of
merger of DA (2) Grant of interim relief and (3) inclusion of Gramin Dak
Sevaks under the purview of 7th CPC. Confederation has conducted 48
hours strike in February
2014, just before the General Election is declared, demanding
settlement of the 15 points charter of demands which includes the above
three main demands also. As General Election was declared we could not
move further. Central Government employees expect that the new
Government will consider positively, the demands raised in the 48 hours
strike.
If the new Government also take the same stand
as that of previous UPA Government and refuse to concede our genuine
demands, the Central Government employees will be forced to tread the
path of struggle again. Before embarking upon such a struggle, our
prime duty is to build up largest unity among all sections of the
Central Government employees. Confederation is making all out effort in
this direction especially to build up total unity among JCM staff side organisations. We are even ready to make certain compromises for the sake of unity.
We have to give enough time to the new Government and we are ready to wait. But we cannot wait indefinitely. 7th CPC has already commenced its work and has fixed
target dates for submission of memorandums by Federations and
Unions/Associations. Chairman, 7th CPC, has also made it clear that
unless the Government refer the issues of DA merger, Interim relief and
GDS issues to the Commission, it will not consider these issues. Hence
the ball is now in the Government’s court. Let us see how the things
move. Let us also be ready to face any situation.