[Bengia Ajum]
ITANAGAR, 18 Sep: The multi-tasking staff working under the Arunachal Pradesh Police (APP) has announced that starting this week, they will not perform duties on Saturdays and Sundays. This decision was made after the government failed to respond to their plea for 13 months’ pay, the lack of guidelines to regulate their duties, and the denial of 15 days of casual leave per year, limiting them to only 12 days.
These multi-tasking staff had filed a writ petition in the Gauhati High Court’s Itanagar permanent bench seeking the 13-month salary, claiming they are engaged in work beyond the prescribed hours and days. The home department submitted a statement in court stating that “the nature and length of duties prescribed for MTS employees in the police department are confined to specific hours and days, and their services are not required during holidays except for urgent work.”
The order further states, “As such, MTS employees are not assigned duties on holidays as a matter of course. All MTS employees under the state government perform the same length of duties and are not entitled to a 13-month salary. Therefore, no special treatment can be given to MTS employees of the police department, as they perform the same duties as other MTS employees.”
In response, the MTS employees asserted that since the state government submitted an affidavit in court claiming they do not work during holidays, they will stop working on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. “We do work on holidays. While we understand that emergencies may require us to work during holidays, it has become routine. We requested the government to compensate us for this extra work, but they refused. We sought justice in court, only to have them submit a false report. This is unfortunate. Therefore, starting this week, we will cease attending work on holidays,” stated an MTS employee of the police department.
