Dear Comrades,
New
Central Government under the leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri.
Narendra Modi has taken charge with a clear majority in the Lok Sabha
election. People of the country and the Central Government employees
who suffered a lot under the UPA Government, have voted for a change.
Now it is the turn of NDA Government. Coming days will prove whether
the selection made by the voters is correct or not.
Central Government employees have to take a cautious approach towards
the new Government. As the new Government has just taken over charge
and expectations are very high, jumping into any sudden conclusion may
not be correct on our part. We have to give reasonable time to the new
government to make its stand clear on the issues agitating the minds of
the Central Government employees. Let us hope that our past experience
in the 2000 December 14 days Postal strike when the NDA Government was
in power, the support extended by the party leading NDA to the UPA
Government for introducing and passing the PFRDA Bill in Parliament, the
infamous downsizing order of 2001 issued by the NDA Government which
paved way for abolition of thousands of vacant posts in Central
Government Departments and refusal to concede any of the main demands of
Gramin Dak Sevaks will not be repeated by the new Government.
The maiden budget of the new Government to be presented in Parliament
in July 2014 may give us an idea on the thinking of the Government and
also the attitude of the Government towards the problems faced by the
common people and the Central Government employees. Confederation of
Central Government Employees and Workers has placed our demands before
the new Government. JCM National Council staff side has also written to
the Finance Minister and Cabinet Secretary. Our demands are not new.
Demands raised before the UPA Government are again placed before the NDA
Government.
While constituting 7th Central
Pay Commission the UPA Government has refused to include the main
demands of the Central Government employees in the terms of reference
viz: (1) Grant of merger of DA (2) Grant of interim relief and (3)
inclusion of Gramin Dak Sevaks under the purview of 7th CPC.
Confederation has conducted 48 hours strike in February 2014, just
before the General Election is declared, demanding settlement of the 15
points charter of demands which includes the above three main demands
also. As General Election was declared we could not move further.
Central Government employees expect that the new Government will
consider positively, the demands raised in the 48 hours strike.
If the new Government also take the same stand as that of previous UPA
Government and refuse to concede our genuine demands, the Central
Government employees will be forced to tread the path of struggle
again. Before embarking upon such a struggle, our prime duty is to
build up largest unity among all sections of the Central Government
employees. Confederation is making all out effort in this direction
especially to build up total unity among JCM staff side organisations.
We are even ready to make certain compromises for the sake of unity.
We have to give enough time to the new Government and we are ready to wait. But we cannot wait indefinitely. 7th CPC
has already commenced its work and has fixed target dates for
submission of memorandums by Federations and Unions/Associations.
Chairman, 7th CPC, has also made it clear that unless the Government
refer the issues of DA merger, Interim relief and GDS issues to the
Commission, it will not consider these issues. Hence the ball is now in
the Government’s court. Let us see how the things move. Let us also
be ready to face any situation.
M. Krishnan
Secretary General
