Mass CL stir cripples work in govt offices

Work in government offices suffered badly across the state on Thursday as nearly seven lakh employees took casual leave en masse to press for their long pending demands, including different allowances on par with central government employees.

According to the Gujarat State Employee's Co-ordination Committee (GSECC), which had given the call for mass CL, the protest was "successful", though a few unions like New Secretariat Employee's Federation, Judicial Officer's Association and some boards and corporations did not participate in the day-long stir.

GSECC general secretary Abdul Chauhan said, "Employees at all old secretariat offices, panchyat offices, teachers' federation, corporation offices and district associations took CL today. Around seven lakh employee remained absent."

"If the government still does not accept our demands of withdrawal of sedition and other cases against our leaders, withdrawal of their transfers and rightful allowances and other benefits on the central government scales, we would go on an indefinite strike. We will also run a campaign against the (Nerendra) Modi government in the coming elections," he added.

Secretariat federation president Manubhai Patel said they did not participate in the protest as they had met the ministers committee on September 20 and 26, where they were assured that the government was ready to accept most of the demands. "So we decided to wait for some more time," he said.

A committee of Finance Minister Vajubhai Vala, Water Resource and Urban Development Minister Nitin Patel and Minister of State for Finance and Industry Saurabh Patel had talks with the employees' union earlier, but the two sides failed to reach a consensus.

Another round of talk between top ministerial and secretaries committees and various key employees unions was held on Wednesday evening, which also failed.

Saurashtra-Kutch

The agitation crippled the work at a large number of government offices in the region as nearly 60,000 employees remained absent.

... contd.

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