The Vijayawada Municipal Employees, Workers, Teachers’ Joint Action Committee members in a letter to the Municipal Commissioner threatened to conduct gate meetings every day from 5 p.m. onwards as part of work-to-rule agitation till the salaries of employees were paid.
The JAC launched the agitation on Friday and in the letter, they reminded the Commissioner about the payment of salaries through Government treasuries under 010 Account.
In April the Vijayawada MP, MLAs and the former Commissioner had promised that they would ensure payment of salaries before fifth of every month. They had also agreed to pay all the pending dues of provident fund, retirement benefits, pensions etc, said the JAC Convener D. Eswar.
“We were assured of solution to the problem within three months, but no such efforts were made”, he said . Moreover, the payment of terminal benefits to retired employees, medical reimbursements and even provident fund payments were stopped, he pointed out.
About Rs.34 crore of provident fund amount and Rs.7 crore of amount collected towards developmental charges in employees’ layout were diverted illegally for the purpose of payment of contract bills, he alleged.
Besides these, Rs.120 crore of pensionary contribution and deductions made from salaries of employees were also illegally diverted for the purpose of payment of bills, he said .
“We are afraid that the administration may heed to the pressures from the Contractors’ Association and trying to meet their demands for payment of bills they may stop the payment of salaries completely,” he wrote. All their efforts of talking to the Commissioner went in vain he said and added that they were forced to implement the first phase of agitation with gate meetings.
