AICTE Pay Notification for Degree and Diploma Institutions. UP Striking employees call off agitation, will hold meeting with Govt on 25th Jan.

AICTE Pay Notification :

(PAY SCALES, SERVICE CONDITIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE TEACHERS AND OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF IN TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS (DEGREE) REGULATIONS 2010

(PAY SCALES, SERVICE CONDITIONS AND QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE TEACHERS AND OTHER ACADEMIC STAFF IN TECHNICAL INSTITUTIONS(DIPLOMA) REGULATIONS 2010

UP Striking employees call off agitation, will hold meeting with Govt on 25th Jan.

The employees-teachers joint front called off its two-day old strike late on Saturday evening following assurance from the state Govt. that the arrested employee leaders will be released and cases against them will be withdrawn. Further, it was decided that the state government and employees' representatives will hold talks on 14-point demands of the front, on January 25.

President, employees-teachers joint front, BP Mishra, after meeting additional cabinet secretary Vijay Shankar Pandey, told reporters that the strike has been called off.

Employees-teachers joint front is an umbrella organisation of 14 state government employees associations in UP.

Mishra said the government has agreed to withdraw cases and release employees arrested during the agitation. Pandey assured him that the government will sympathetically consider employees' demands in January 25 meeting.

Over 18 lakh state employees went on strike from January 22 (Friday) to protest against the brutal lathicharge on agitating employees in Lucknow on January 21 (Thursday) in which even women and elderly were mercilessly thrashed by the police. The protest march was called by the front to press for their demands related to pay parity with the the Central government employees. But, the protest turned violent when police used force to disperse the employees.

The situation aggravated on January 22 when the government declared the strike illegal and directed officials to curb the agitation with an iron hand. Over 100 employees were suspended and around 30 employees' leaders arrested from all over the state. These employees were booked for indulging in violence and vitiating peace. The government also threatened to slap the Essential Services Maintenance Act to crack down on the strike.

In Lucknow, district magistrate AK Ghosh slapped an agriculture department employee in full public view and misbehaved with others. At many places, striking employees were canecharged by the police. This added fuel to the fire and employees included another demand in their list — removal of DM Lucknow AK Ghosh and district police chief Prem Prakash. The latter had ordered the canecharge on the agitating employees and was seen mishandling women protesters. The photographs and visuals of police and bureaucratic high-handedness published in newspapers and shown on news channels invited widespread public anger despite the fact that people, too, suffer due to strike.

Meanwhile, after announcing withdrawal of strike, Mishra told reporters that additional cabinet secretary has also assured them that action will be taken against DM Lucknow and district police chief on the basis of the inquiry being done by commissioner Prashant Trivedi.

The government started efforts to cajole the striking employees' leaders since Saturday morning. First, leaders of two employees' unions, out of total 16 in the state, were called for talks and assured of sympathetic consideration of their demands. Later in the evening, leaders of remaining 14 employees associations, who too were strike, were called for talks.

While employees are demanding pay parity with the Central government scales, the state government's contention was that it has already implemented the sixth pay commission report which has resulted in Rs 40,000 crore expenditure on salaries of the employees and Rs 15,000 crore on pension of retired employees. If government agrees to the pay parity demand, it would result in additional Rs 2000 crore financial burden, which the government cannot afford.

However, public suffered the most due to the tussle between the state government and employees. The strike threw all major services in the state out of gear. The worst hit were hospitals where nurses and para-medical staff struck work leaving patients to fend for themselves.

Source : The Times of India.