Port Blair, Mar 17: Mr. Kuldeep Rai Sharma, President, INTUC along with a delegation of Daily Rated/Contract Workers from the Directorate of Transport met Lt. Governor and briefed him about the shortage of permanent operational and maintenance staff with the department.
Mr. Sharma informed Lt. Governor that although in recent past the number of busses and the number of routes covered by the State Transport Services have increased but the permanent manpower with the department remained the same over the years. He informed the Lt. Governor that as of today STS is having about 224 Bus Drivers and conductors and 191 workshop staffs.
Mr. Sharma also informed the Lt. Governor that to cope up with the shortage of manpower and to provide efficient and effective services the Directorate of Transport is engaging manpower on Daily Rated Basis and Contract Basis. Mr. Sharma added that seeing the need for the man power the Andaman and Nicobar Administration has already put a proposal in front of the Central Govt to create 628 posts of various categories and the proposal is under consideration by the Central
Govt.
Mr. Sharma has also informed Lt. Governor that as of today about 400 Daily Wage/Contract Workers are working in the Department and out of the 400 workers 300 have already completed seven years of continuous service and the rest have completed 240 days of continuous service in a year.
Mr. Sharma has requested the Lt. Governor to fill up the 628 posts with the 400 Daily wage/ Contract Workers presently working in the department.
Mr. Sharma has also informed the Lt. Governor that a number of vacancies have already arisen in the Department due to retirement, promotion and death and he requested him to fill up those vacancies with the Daily Wage/ Contact Workers according to their Seniority.
Mr. Sharma has also requested the Lt. Governor for providing 1/30th of the pay at the minimum of relevant pay scale plus DA for work of 8 hours a day for the remaining Daily wage workers.
