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Rajasthan govt cracks the whip, sacks 17 striking employees

Kamla Bora in Jaipur

Hardening its stance, the Rajasthan government has terminated services of 17 striking employees and suspended five others as the more than a month-old statewide indefinite strike by its staff spread into more areas, creating chaos in water supply and health services.

After invoking provisions of the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act last week to curb the strike, the state police has so far arrested more than 1,000 striking employee leaders and others but the number of staff members boycotting work has officially gone up to 1.68 lakh from the 94,000 who were abstaining from duty last weekend.

Water supply and healthcare services have been badly affected in the state following employees in these departments joining the strike. Work in the high court and lower courts has also been paralysed, with judicial employees joining the agitation.

Angry residents of Jaipur resorted to road blockade at several places as their taps remained dry despite government's assurance that water supply will be maintained at any cost. Although the authorities rushed 180 tankers to supply drinking water in different localities.

Indoor patients were discharged from government hospitals in different parts of the state after hospital staff went off duty.

The government charged the striking employees, who are demanding payment of bonus and additional instalment of Dearness Allowance, with indulging in sabotage to disrupt water supply. Education Minister B D Kalla, who also holds the portfolio of general administration department, told mediapersons that all the 17 employees whose services have been terminated belonged to the water supply department and were charged with sabotage activities. They included five junior engineers.

In a significant development, the state police nabbed a Congress member of the assembly, Udai Singh Rathore, who is also president of the State Employees Joint Federation, on Thursday evening. The majority union headed by him did not start the agitation but joined it only after the government failed to take cognisance of the strike by his rival faction even after one month.

Meanwhile, four major labour unions -- INTUC, AITUC, CITU, and Hind Mazdoor Sangh -- have jointly asked Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to personally intervene to end the deadlock in talks between striking employees and the government, and stop repressive measures against the agitators. Similarly, a delegation of the joint action committee of the Rajasthan State Electricity Board engineers, officers and other employees met the chief minister to urge him settle the dispute.

However, Gehlot is repeatedly refusing to concede the employees' demands, saying that the state was just not in a position to take additional liability. If it did so it would default payment of employees' salaries.

With no end to the strike in sight, the JAC has announced the holding of a parallel Republic Day function.

The strike is also likely to intensify further as the Rajasthan Municipal Employees Federation has threatened to stop work in all the 183 urban municipal areas from January 24 if the state government failed to amicably settle the demands.

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