Hundreds of employees belonging to town panchayats staged a demonstration in the city on Wednesday demanding better pay and service conditions.
In a petition submitted to the district administration, the employees at all levels right from sanitary workers sought filling of vacancies to the posts of junior assistant, driver, sanitary inspectors, fitters and electricians.
Their main demands constituted conversion of eligible panchayats into town panchayats; bringing of all employees under time scale; and restoration of old pension scheme for 2,923 employees. They sought sanction of driver post in all town panchayats on regular scale.
The petition emphasised on promotion for technically qualified fitters and electricians on the basis of seniority in employment exchange; provision of washing allowance for conservancy workers and housing them in multi-storied quarters; introduction of the system of counselling for transfer of employees within town panchayats; and simplification of norms for ensuring timely posting of dependants of employees dying in harness on compassionate grounds.
The government must accept to pay a minimum of ₹ 15,000 per month for workers appointed for solid waste management and mosquito elimination.
There were also demands for preference of bill collectors based on their seniority, while filling vacancy to the post of junior assistant; consideration of all employees in town panchayats as government staff; and increase in monthly vehicle allowance for executive officer, bill collector and sanitary supervisors.
Salem Staff Reporter adds
The members of the Federation of Tamil Nadu Town Panchayat Departments staged a demonstration near Collectorate here on Wednesday.
Their demands included upgrade of panchayats as town panchayats and upgrade of town panchayats as municipalities through government orders issued at same time, filing up of vacancies, withdrawing the new pension scheme and bringing back the old pension scheme, providing promotion to the workers at lower cadre regularly and creating jobs for technicians.
Over 300 workers in Salem and Namakkal districts participated in the protest. They wanted the State government to consider their demands and fulfil it at the earliest.
