MGNREGA Employees Demand Revocation of Secy’s Order and Regularization of Their Services
Srinagar: Contractual employees working under the flagship scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) appealed the Honorable Lieutenant Governor of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to address their long pending demand of regularization of services in the Rural Development Department.
State President Mr. Syed Jaffar while talking to Kashmir Radar urged the Lieutenant Governor to resolve their demand of regularization against the vacancies lying in the department of Rural Development as the maximum manpower that was deployed for smooth functioning of MGNREGA since 2005 have crossed their upper age limit as of now.
“The supporting staff has been working tirelessly in the department and in addition to MGNREGA chores, our services are being utilized for all other works that come under the jurisdiction of Rural Development Department, be it the execution of 14th Finance Commission works, CDF, SBM, PMAY, Election duties and other official works to support the administration to work smoothly” Said the vice-president of the association.
In the present times of crisis our staff has been on the forefront to fight the pandemic. We have been on toes for the department to upload all the surveys on the websites and applications that were provided to us, said another member of the association.
The association demanded the immediate revocation of the order issued by the Secretary Rural Development citing the extension of MGNREGA supporting staff on the basis of their performance which stands in violation of the previous service rules in place for MGNREGA supporting staff.
Further the protesting employees reminded the administration to take up their issue of regularization which stands pending in since 2005.
After hundreds of promises and betrayals by the previous ruling parties we are now pinning our hopes on the Honorable Lieutenant Governor and we hope he will surely fulfill all the demands we have submitted to them time and again.
It is pertinent ot mention that MGNREGA supporting staff comprises of Programmme officers, Technical Assistants, Grahm Rozgar Sahayaks and MIS Operators and all of the staff including the Programme officers at the district level are working on a meager salary without any yearly increments or other benefits.
On 1st June 2020, A Technical Assistant working in Block Kunzar of Baramulla district resigned from his services as his salary was not released even on the occasion of Eid by the Block Development Officer.
