Government employees observe one-day strike

June 02, 2016 12:14 pm | Updated November 17, 2021 10:53 am IST - Bengaluru

Even Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power, wore a deserted look on Thursday morning. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Even Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power, wore a deserted look on Thursday morning. Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Despite several warnings by the State government, the government employees registered their protest by striking work on Thursday.

In the seat of power Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha in the city, more than 80 per cent of the employees struck work. The only ones to turn up for work were temporary employees on contract. Even in the Chief Minister’s Office, none of the employees turned up for work, except for a few contract workers.

M.S. Building, which houses several government offices, was also deserted. Many government employees did not turn up for work.

V. Shankar, Deputy Commissioner, Bengaluru (Urban) said that the only ones to turn up were his gunman a police official, his driver who was on contract and himself.

The citizenry in the city were affected as officials from Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), participated in the strike and abstained from work. None of the ward offices were open.

However, the pourakarmikas considered an essential service were on the streets Thursday morning.

With the university employees also participating in the strike, classes in most of them were affected. Some of the examinations to be held today have also been rescheduled. Lecturers of government polytechnic and engineering colleges, who did show up to work, went back home, as a majority of lecturers abstained from work. With the government school teachers also participating in the strike, no classes were held in the government schools.

The first and second D.Ed., D.P.Ed and PPT exams that were scheduled on Thursday have been postponed to June 8. All other exams will be conducted as per schedule, said a communique from the Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board.

The degree college professors of Bangalore University went on a pen down strike for two hours, supporting the strike. They stopped the evaluation of B.A., B.Com and B.Sc examinations held during April-May.

Giri Gowda, Organising Secretary, Karnataka State Employees Association said that the response to the mass abstention from work had been even better in most of the districts. “A total of 5.4 employees have abstained from their work on Thursday bringing the state government machinery to a grinding halt,” he said.

However, the employees are still an aggrieved lot as the government is yet to call them for talks regarding their demands. “The government and the Chief Minister only issued warnings on the strike… but are yet to initiate talks with us on the demands,” Mr. Gowda rued.

The employees, among other demands, are asking for equal pay on par with union government employees and seeking recruitments to fill the large vacancies in various departments. Of the Group B, C and D Employees alone, while the sanctioned strength is around 7.5 lakh, there are only 5.4 lakh employees working.

Mr. Gowda said that if the state government neither initiate talks or any steps to correct the many anomalies with this strike, he said a decision would likely be taken to go on an indefinite strike soon.

Meanwhile, employees from Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation, various Electricity Supply Companies across the state have announced their moral support for the strike are working. Police and doctors, considered essential services, are also working. While the State Government Employees’ Association has members from only Group B, C and D and are participating in the strike, Group A officials have expressed their support to the strike.

Hubballi

The call for one-day strike by state government employees evoked overwhelming response in Hubballi.

Locked offices greeted the public at Mini Vidhana Soudha in Hubballi. A few that were open saw hardly any staff report to duty.

Tahasildar Shashidhar Mandyal, additional Tahasidar Shivanand Rane were the only two working in the Tahasildar's office. Mr. Shashidhar said arrangements had been made to receive applications from general public, which would be processed later. He said that as per the direction of the government further action would be taken on the employees who had abstained from work.

Udupi

Attendance in government offices at the District Offices Complex was sparse. Only outsourced employees reported for work.

Members of district unit of Karnataka State Employees’ Association staged a dharna outside the District Offices Complex. Subrahmanya Sherigar, association president, demanded pay parity in salaries of state government and union government employees.

Belagavi

Several offices, including the office of the Department of Public Instruction, wore a deserted look. The striking employees gathered outside their respective offices and raised slogans in support of their demands.

Dharwad

Employees of all Govt offices, schools, colleges including that of the Deputy Commissioner and Tahasildars participated in the strike. These establishments wore a deserted look as only heads of the departments were present and others went on mass casual leave as part of the protest. It was a land mark protest after a gap of ten years. Nearly, 6,000 government employees staged the protest. The traffic was out of gear.

Mangaluru

The staff at Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) resumed work after holding a token protest. However, all other government offices in Mangaluru city and Dakshina Kannada district wore a deserted look.

Earlier in the day, around 400 MCC employees staged a demonstration for an hour and resumed work, said Gokuldas Nayak, MCC's Joint Commissioner. He said the employees were wearing black badges to express support to the government employees' strike.

Elsewhere, almost all government offices in the district and the city wore deserted look with employees abstaining from work. Kumar, Additional Deputy Commissioner, told The Hindu that workers on outsourced duties were on their job. Hence, counters like Bhoomi, Atalji Janasnehi Kendra etc., functioned normally and public were not affected, he said.

Kolar

The one-day strike by government employees was total in Kolar district.

With employees of various departments abstaining from work, the services at the government offices in the district was paralysed. Only staff of emergency services in hospitals reported to the duty and the courts worked with thin attendance. Government schools and other educational institutions remained closed.

Several government employees, who struck work, gathered in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office and raised slogans in support of their demand.

Association district president K.N. Manjunath submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister through Deputy Commissioner K.V. Thrilokchandra. Mr. Manjunath also declared support to proposed strike by police personnel on June 4.

Ballari

There was good response the strike throughout Ballari district.

Almost all state government departments, especially those located in Deputy Commissioner and Taluk Office compound, which used to be abuzz with activity, and the zilla panchayat office wore a deserted look with the employees participating in the strike.

Only the heads of the offices, including Deputy Commissioner, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner were seen in their chambers, while a large number of government employees, including women, attended the rally organised by the district unit of KSGE Association at Deputy Commissioner’s office compound.

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