Employees of Sri Durga Malleswara Swamivarla Devasthanam on Thursday staged an impromptu sit-in protest alleging that they were upset with the “indifferent attitude” of Endowments Commissioner J.S.V. Prasad with regard to implementation of recommendations of the Pay Revision Commission (PRC).
They staged a dharna on Indrakeeladri, the abode of goddess Kanakadurga, up to 4 p.m. Vijayawada West MLA Vellampalli Srinivas arrived at the dharna camp and expressed solidarity with the agitating employees. He assured them that he would take an appointment with Chief Minister K. Rosaiah on Monday and the representatives of the Temple Employees Federation could appraise the situation to the Chief Minister. Following which, the employees suspended their protest.
However, they asserted that they would go ahead with the original plan of sitting on relay hunger strikes at all major temples from October 2 to 7. And, after October 7, direct action would be initiated.
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The employees lamented that Mr. Prasad had not responded positively when they tried to submit a memorandum to him soon after the coordination committee meeting. The Commissioner was reluctant to take the memorandum and stuck to his argument that the temple employees could not be treated as government employees. “His attitude annoyed us and hurt us a lot,” the employees said.