EDITORIAL - BHARTIYA POST - JULY 2014
Pending Demands and New Government
New Central Government under the
leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi has taken
charge with
a clear majority in the Lok Sabha election.
People of the country and the Central Government employees who suffered
a lot under the UPA Government, have voted for a change. Now it is the
turn of NDA Government. Coming days will prove whether the selection
made by the voters is correct or not.
Central Government employees have
to take a cautious approach towards the new Government. As the new Government has just taken over
charge and expectations are very high, jumping into any sudden conclusion may
not be correct on our part. We have to
give reasonable time to the new government to make its stand clear on the
issues agitating the minds of the Central Government employees. Let us hope that our past experience in the
2000 December 14 days Postal strike when the NDA Government was in power, the
support extended by the party leading NDA to the UPA Government for introducing
and passing the PFRDA Bill in Parliament, the infamous downsizing order of 2001
issued by the NDA Government which paved way for abolition of thousands of
vacant posts in Central Government Departments and refusal to concede any of
the main demands of Gramin Dak Sevaks will not be repeated by the new
Government.
The maiden budget of the new
Government to be presented in Parliament in July 2014 may give us an idea on
the thinking of the Government and also the attitude of the Government towards
the problems faced by the common people and the Central Government
employees. Confederation of Central
Government Employees and Workers has placed our demands before the new Government. JCM National Council staff side has also
written to the Finance Minister and Cabinet Secretary. Our demands are not new. Demands raised before the UPA Government are
again placed before the NDA Government.
While constituting 7th
Central Pay Commission the UPA Government has refused to include the main
demands of the Central Government employees in the terms of reference viz: (1)
Grant of merger of DA (2) Grant of interim relief and (3) inclusion of Gramin
Dak Sevaks under the purview of 7th CPC.
Confederation has conducted 48 hours strike in February 2014, just
before the General Election is declared, demanding settlement of the 15 points
charter of demands which includes the above three main demands also. As General Election was declared we could not
move further. Central Government
employees expect that the new Government will consider positively, the demands
raised in the 48 hours strike.
If the new Government also take
the same stand as that of previous UPA Government and refuse to concede our
genuine demands, the Central Government employees will be forced to tread the
path of struggle again. Before embarking
upon such a struggle, our prime duty is to build up largest unity among all
sections of the Central Government employees.
Confederation is making all out effort in this direction especially to
build up total unity among JCM staff side organisations. We are even ready to make certain compromises
for the sake of unity.
We have to give enough time to
the new Government and we are ready to wait.
But we cannot wait indefinitely.
7th CPC has already commenced its work and has fixed target
dates for submission of memorandums by Federations and
Unions/Associations. Chairman, 7th CPC,
has also made it clear that unless the Government refer the issues of DA
merger, Interim relief and GDS issues to the Commission, it will not consider
these issues. Hence the ball is now in
the Government’s court. Let us see how
the things move. Let us also be ready to
face any situation.
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