Suniti Singh
Jamshedpur, Sept 5: The Secretariat Service Association (SSA) members have decided to go on mass leave between September 10 and12, to pressurize the government into accepting their long-standing six-point charter of demands. This will result in temporary suspension of work at the Secretariat and Directorate. This decision was a result of ongoing protests by officials and employees who had been demanding action on their long-pending issues for over three months. The protest will involve nearly 1,000 employees, marking a significant stand against what they described as government inaction.
Siddharth Shankar Besra, General Secretary of the SSA, formally announced the shutdown through a letter addressed to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, Secretaries and department heads. He highlighted that the Association’s grievances had been ignored for several years. Besra said, “The neglectful attitude of the government has compelled us to take this step and move towards phased protest.”
According to him, despite repeated requests there had been no progress on several critical issues, forcing the Association to intensify its protest through this temporary work stoppage.
The Association has outlined several key demands including
the immediate promotion of officials and employees whose promotions had been delayed for years.
Another major demand was that they were asking for promotions to the posts of Section Officers to be made effective retrospectively.
Additionally, the introduction of a non-functional pay scale for section officers was another major demand which Besra emphasized was a common provision in other government services but had yet to be implemented in the Secretariat.
There was a pressing need to create senior-level posts, including those of Deputy Secretary and Joint Secretary to ensure the smooth functioning of the Secretariat and to provide career advancement opportunities to officials.
The Association was advocating for the filling of existing vacant positions to prevent disruptions in administrative work. The vacancies in roles such as Joint Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary and Section Officer had strained the efficiency of the Secretariat, according to the Association.
The Association was also calling for the provision of a Child Education Allowance which they believed was necessary to support employees. Furthermore, they were demanding prompt recruitment for positions within the original category of the Secretariat Service, which had remained pending since a long time.
Besra warned that this three-day shutdown was only the beginning of a larger phased protest. The protest had raised concerns about the potential impact on government functioning during the shutdown period as many key administrative duties could be delayed or disrupted due to the absence of nearly 1,000 officials and employees.
