In Paralytic Mode

Apathetic govt is responsible for the employees' strike

WITH employees on a five day strike, the functioning of government offices and institutions is virtually affected, the worst sectors being the most essential health services and the education sector. It would however be an oversimplification of things to blame the restless employees for the agitation in the face of an irresponsive government that pays little or no heed to their demands and grievances. The employees have been agitating since a couple of months for redressal of their long pending problems but it apparently seems that their voices are falling on deaf ears, even though they have been giving repeated reminders to the state government about their long pending demands. However, there have been no serious attempts to open up negotiation channels with the employees from the lower rung of the state administrative hierarchy. For almost a year now, despite lip assurances, the government has been unable to heed the demand for salaries as per the sixth pay commission, which is a justified demand. The simple assertion of the state reeling under financial crisis holds little logic, especially when the government feels unconstrained by this reality while going ahead with princely hike in salaries and perks for ministers and legislators. If the state has money enough to go in for a three-fold hike for politicians or for hikes in salaries for bureaucrats, such logics appear flimsy and hollow. The huge fleet of the government employees at the lower and middle rung, who actually need immediate relief, continue to reel in frustration and deprivation in the face of the rising price index. However, instead of compassionately addressing their grievances, the blind men in their ivory towers have decided to adopt a confrontationist attitude with the employees. The recent spate of strikes and incidents of agitating employees being met with brutal police action is a clear indicator. The government is totally oblivious to the growing unrest of the employees that has been gradually building up for sometime and equally insensitive to the fact that such prolonged apathy towards a major section of the society can have dangerous repercussions. Not only does it impact the working in the state administration in the long run, frequent strikes like the five day strike that began on Tuesday also create inconvenience for the masses, paralysing every government department including the health sector. The onus of this unfortunate situation lies on the government which is totally unsympathetic, rather apathetic. But is the government, that took few seconds to hike up salaries of legislators by a huge margin, really watching or listening?