ITANAGAR, 23 Feb: The Arunachal Pradesh Trade Union Federation (APTUF) on Friday announced to organise a three-phase stir, beginning with a dharna, and followed by a pen-down strike, “mass casual leave,” a 48-hour hunger strike, and a non-cooperation movement.
Addressing mediapersons at the press club here, APTUF secretary-general Kenkar Yomcha said that the stirs have been planned in view of the fact that only one of its five demands has been met by the state government, under which the wages of contingency employees has been enhanced by Rs 2,000.
“In September 2023, we had announced to conduct a statewide peaceful dharna from 4 October. However, at the request of the labour and employment secretary, the first phase of the strike was called off,” Yomcha informed.
“Recently, on 15 February, another letter was issued by the secretary, again requesting us to defer our bandh call,” he claimed, and added that “this time the union is not going to repeat the same mistake.”
“We have placed our remaining four demands again, but they are being overlooked by the government,” he said.
In the matter of the enhancement of WC employees’ salaries also, Yomcha said that it has been increased from Rs 1,900 to Rs 2,400. However, he said, “While all the newly recruited WC employees are receiving Rs 2,400 monthly, those recruited earlier are still receiving Rs 1,900.”
“We had also placed our demand for a one-time WC post in every engineering department, with the exclusion of MTS posts, from the Arunachal Pradesh Staff Selection Board examinations,” said Yomcha.
The union’s demands include regularisation of all the contingency employees working for over 15 years and above in the departments.
“This time, we are going with the motto of ‘no solution, no vote’,” he said, and added that “no member of the union throughout the state will cast our votes in the upcoming elections if all our demands are not fulfilled.”
Dharnas will be held on 11 March throughout the state, he informed.
“In the second phase, a mass pen-down strike will be observed from 14 to 15 March, followed by a mass casual leave from 18 to 20 March.
“The last phase will end with a non-cooperation movement on 10 April,” Yomcha said.
