Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, Dec 17: The Daily Rated Mazdoors working in various Divisions of the Andaman Public Works Department have launched a massive strike from today demanding immediate implementation of the Govt. of India’s order to extend the benefit of 1/30th of pay plus DA at the relevant scale of pay.
A meeting held in the chamber of the Chief Engineer, APWD, with the representatives of the Andaman Sarvajanik Nivman Vibhag Mazdoor Sangh(ASNVMS) on Tuesday ended in failure as the department did not make any commitment towards demand.
“The statutory strike notice was served on the Chief Engineer by the Union on 3rd December, 2015. The Union has been pursuing this demand for the last few years with the APWD and the Administration. The assurances given by the department in the past have not been implemented,” Mr. B Chandrachoodan the President of ASNVMS told Andaman Sheekha today.
About 3000 daily rated mazdoors are working in various Divisions of APWD, performing the regular nature of work in the absence of regular employees.
“More than 3000 posts of Mazdoors and other categories are lying vacant in the APWD. These daily rated mazdoors have put in long period of service ranging from 5 years to 20 years in the APWD,” the Chandrachoodan said
The other demands raised by the Union include regularization of the services of the daily rated mazdoors grant of Bonus to DRMs as per Govt. of India’s order, etc. Workers working in the APWD from Campbell Bay to Diglipur joined the strike.
