Central Pay scale deprivation of State Govt employees; State employees of 21 departments joining as party in the Representative Lawsuit filed by Soubhik Roy Bardhan; State Govt likely to get slammed by HC
Bhaskar N Sarkar
AGARTALA, February 3 (TIWN): After suffering from the intentional and undemocratic way of deprivation imposed upon by the state govt on them, state govt employees are now uniting to teach the state govt ' a shock treatment' , as said a senior state govt employee. Already an employee of Statistical Department Soubhik Roy Bardhan lodged a case in the High Court ( WA/02/2015) demanding justice against the intentional deprivation of Manik Sarkar led CPI(M) Govt. Reacting to this appeal the Division Bench of Tripura High Court comprising of the Chief Justice and Justice Subhasish Talapatra asked the govt lawyer Tapas Datta Majumder to present the state govt's reply within 8 weeks. And now the state govt employees , irrespective of political identities are regrouping among themselves to fight the case in HC. It is learnt that very recently 21 more employees working in 21 different departments of govt of Tripura will file an appeal to be included as parties in the said case.A large section of employees known as Melarmath lobby are now in touch with Soubhik Roy Bardhan and his associates and they assured that the entire expenses of the said case will be borne by the majority of the state govt employees.
And already a section of state govt employees started to raise funds willingly by means of the donation other are now receiving from many employees.
And this suggests that the employees are now getting united.
Lets have a look on how much the state employees are suffering now from the following statistics:-
A) How much an employee is being deprived every month-
1) GROUP D Rs 3433/-
2) GROUP C Rs 12882 /-
3) GROUP B Rs 17901/-
4) GROUP A Rs 53320/-
B) Deprivation upon teachers under various categories
1) Under Graduate Teacher- Rs 16744/- per month and yearly Rs 231852 /-
2) Graduate Teacher - Rs 17665/- per month and yearly Rs 248000/-
3) Post Graduate Teacher Rs 15635/- per month and yearly Rs 218412/-
C) Deprivation upon Fixed Pay employees( for the LF Govt self imposed policy of recruitment in fixed pay and compulsory fixed pay service of 5 years) -
1) UGT/LDC/Work Assistant - Rs 39.75 lakh
3) Graduate Teacher and its equivalent Rs 52.5 lakh
3) Post Graduate Teacher and its equivalent Rs 55 lakh.
During these five years service as fixed pay the employees are being deprived of 5 yearly increment , GPF benefit and others allowances.
Reacting to this issue Tripura State Employees Federation Secretary Dipan Bhowmik told this correspondent on Monday night over phone," Majority of the state govt employees are now behind Soubhik Roy Bardhan. Defying the political ideologies employees are now ready to contribute generously to this case as it is now clear that this govt won't implement Central Pay Scale. And as such knocking the doors of legal avenues will be the only option is the only option left with state employees. ".
At present state govt employees are getting 38% less from the Central Employees only in DA and as a result of it the deprivation on the state employees every month only for DA are as follows:-
1) PB-I - Rs 3557/-
2)PB-II -Rs 9350/-
3) PB-III- Rs 13687/-
4) PB-IV- Rs 35720/-
And day by day this will increase as from 1st January 2016 Central Govt will implement the proposals of the 7th Pay Commission and after this fate of the state govt employees will be submerged under deep water. But Soubhik Roy Bardhan's case has all on a sudden given a new ray of hope for the employees. And thus they are not ready to lose any chance.
It is to be mentioned here that on 31st August 2014 Soubhik Roy Bardhan through an RTI Application appealed for copies of different circulars, memorandums or orders relating to the salary structures of state govt employees. Through this RTI an interesting and crucial report came to Soubhik . He got the reports of the Pay Review Committee that clearly stated ," In a totally undemocratic and unscientific way state govt is going to implement the proposals of the Pay Review Committee and it will only lead to state employees' worries.". Thus, it is clear that even the Pay Review Committee itself cautioned the govt . Again in the Consumer Price Index published by the Ministry of Labour, Govt of India in 2013 it was said that even in the North Eastern states , inflation rate in Tripura is the highest. Apart from these Soubhik Roy Bardhan also submitted a lot of other documents and a statistical report of how much the state employees are suffering. And according to a senior lawyer," When the issue will be raised in the HC, Division Bench is likely to slam on the state govt once again. And unless the HC is satisfied with govt's reply, it will once again lunch on the state govt. ".
Sanjay Majumder
Anirban Mitra