IMC employees threaten stir
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, January 22 2013:
Imphal Municipal Council Employees' Union has threatened to launch intense agitation in case Government of Manipur does not translate its assurance to the
Union into action.
According to Union secretary Th Sobita Devi, Council employees numbering 230 are enduring severe economic hardships as their salary for 22 months, including three months' entitlement for 2006, have been held up till date.
To protest denial of pending salaries Union members launched ceasework strike since November 12 last before resorting to IMC gate closure agitation and staging sit-in-protest inside the Council campus from January 12 this year as the Government took no positive step to resolve the issue, said the secretary.
Following protracted agitation and derailment of council activities, information was conveyed to the Union by the Commissioner (Mahud) for a meeting, held on January 15, she informed adding that at the said meeting also attended by IMC's Executive Officer, the Commissioner assured the matter would be placed before the Chief Minister as soon as the latter's return to the state.
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based on the assurance, the agitation was relaxed upto January 31 for some section of the Council employees (Master role) but the gate-shut down and sit-in-demonstration are still being continued, Sobita maintained.
Employees engaged in sanitising Imphal city were also exempted from the purview of the agitation from January 18 onward taking into account threat posed to citizens' health due to piling wastes as well as considering the Commissioner's assurance that the CM would be urged to do the needful to clearing the pending salaries, she said.
Reiterating that in case the issue remains unsolved even after the CM's return to the State the Union would intensify the agitation, Robita questioned why the employees should continue to suffer when budgetary allocation was made for the Imphal Municipal Council in the 2012 fiscal.