Hyderabad, April 14: State government employees who resort to “unconventional” and “different types of agitation programmes” including non-cooperation movements will be dealt with a heavy hand in future.
The state chief secretary, Mr S.V. Prasad, on Wednesday issued orders directing the concerned authorities to initiate disciplinary action against employees participating in bandhs, strikes, pen downs, chalk downs and tool downs besides non-cooperation without even waiting for any government orders.
Mr Prasad also wanted action to be against employees who played games, beat drums and indulged in other activities that disturbed the working atmosphere in state offices and affected the “decency and decorum of the government”. The order kicked up a political storm within hours of its release with the Telangana Rashtra Samiti and employees’ organisations from the Telangana region demanding the GO’s immediate withdrawal which they stated would usurp the employees’ democratic rights.
The Telangana Joint Action Committee of Employees also gave a call to observe a “black day” on Friday in protest against the order. “We will intensify our agitation if the government does not withdraw the unconstitutional and undemocratic GO,” said the leader of Telangana employees, Mr A. Vithal. The TRS leader, Mr T. Harish Rao, also demanded the withdrawal of the order.
Action on staff skipping work
Recently the government had faced a tough situation when Telangana employees had successfully carried out the non-cooperation protest which had brought the administration in the region to a standstill for about two weeks.
The employees had not given the government any scope to act against them as they had signed the attendance registers and subsequently skipped their duties. The state was thus forced to pay salaries to all the employees after it failed to differentiate between those who had attended duties and those who had not. Keeping this in mind, the government has asked the authorities concerned to maintain records of employees who sign the registers but skip duties and to send day-to-day reports to the government.
Besides giving adequate protection to employees attending their duties, the officials should also file criminal cases against those employees or groups who prevent other employees from discharging their duties, the GO stated. The chief secretary said in the orders that a “no work, no pay” policy would be strictly adopted and the period of agitation for the participating employees would be treated as “not on duty” and they would receive no pay and allowances.