Sanitation workers, guards oppose online attendance

Karnal, March 4

The decision to implement the practice of online attendance for employees of the Panchayat Department has met with stiff opposition from gramin safai karamcharis, chowkidars and tube well operators, who staged a protest at the Mini-Secretariat here on Monday. With the support of various employees’ associations, they demanded that the decision be revoked, otherwise they would intensify their agitation. They handed over a memorandum of their demands to the district authorities for the Chief Minister, threatening a three-day protest at the district headquarters.

Question authority given to sarpanches

• The attendance process is to be verified by the sarpanch and village secretary
• The protesters said elected representatives had no authority to mark employee attendance
• They questioned the grant of power to sarpanches to generate bills based on attendance

Kali Ram, state general secretary, Haryana Gramin Chowkidar Sabha, and Daljeet Singh, a leader of the Gramin Safai Karamchari Union, highlighted their concerns, and said the order had stated that they had to mark their attendance twice daily through an app developed by a private bank. They said this process, to be verified by the sarpanch and village secretary, was detrimental to employee rights. “Elected representatives have no authority to mark employee attendance. Why should sarpanches be empowered to generate bills based on attendance?” Kali Ram questioned.

Sushil Gurjar, district president of Sarv Karamchari Sangh, highlighted the plight of safai karamcharis and chowkidars, saying they were receiving meager wages. “We want the government to regularise all contractual workers and ensure a minimum salary of Rs 26,000, along with retirement benefits,” he said.