Front flays CM's warning to striking revenue staff

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Amritsar, September 4

The Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) has strongly condemned the aggressive approach taken against the striking employees affiliated to the Revenue Patwar Union and Revenue Kanungo Association by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

Vikram Dev Singh, state president of the association, and Ashwani Awasthi, Amritsar district unit head, said the government should clarify the situation on the basis of the facts regarding the demands of the employees, who are on strike. “By making statements from the stages, the image of the employees should not be damaged among the people,” said Vikram Dev Singh.

The leaders questioned Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann about his statement of dismissal of employees sitting on the pen-down strike. They asked him why he was silent about the demands of contractual and outsourced employees, who were performing their duties even under unfavourable condition. “In 1990, there were seven lakh government employees working in the state. The number of employees, due to privatization policies, reduced to 3.20 lakh during the Akali-BJP government, then to 2.85 lakh during the Congress government and now only 2.80 lakh employees were working during the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government and it is understandable. The number of employees is continuously decreasing,” questioned Dev.

The DTF Front leaders also condemned the Mann government’s warning of invoking the ESMA law against the striking employees. “You want to threaten the employees by invoking the British-era laws, by calling the strike illegal. Why to threaten the employees instead of lending them an ear,” said Awasthi.