Thaindian News

Srinagar, Jan 22 (IANS) Jammu and Kashmir government employees, who want their retirement age to be raised and arrears of tehir salary hike to be paid early, struck work for the second day Friday.
“Government employees in the valley, Ladakh region and Jammu region observed a complete strike today for the second day running to press for the implementation of our demands,” Farooq Ahmad Trali, the spokesman of the government Employees’ Joint Action Committee (EJAC), told IANS here.

He also said except for the employees working at the Civil Secretariat in Jammu, all other government employees and those working in public sector undertakings observed the protest strike.

The spokesman claimed nearly 450,000 government employees observed the strike Friday.

The state government has already passed on the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission to its employees as applicable to central government employees.

The demands of state government employees include raising their retirement age from 58 to 60, release of arrears from increase in their salaries following the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations, conversion of cost of living allowance (COLA) into dearness allowance (DA) for the workers of government undertakings, regularisation of temporary and ad hoc employees working in government offices and public sector undertakings.

State Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather has said the total revenue of the state amounted to Rs.4,000 crore while the wage bill of its employees alone amounted to Rs.4,200 crore per year.

Rather also said the payment of arrears to employees would involve another Rs.3,700 crore, which are not available with the state government at present.