The strike by lakhs of Maharashtra government employees continued for the second day even though Chief Minister Eknath Shinde appealed to them to return to work a day earlier. Government employees are demanding restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
The work in government hospitals and offices has been affected due to the strike. The government has also started indicating strict action against the striking employees.
Vishwas Katkar, convenor of the committee representing around 35 organizations of state government employees, semi-government employees and teachers, claimed that their members are participating in the strike and demonstrations in all 36 districts of Maharashtra.
Rejecting Shinde’s appeal, he said that the demands of the employees should be met. Katkar said the state government employees had staged a similar agitation in 2018 as well, following which a committee was constituted but no action was taken on its report.
The employees also went on strike in 2022 but no action was taken to fulfill their demands. Sumitra Tote of Maharashtra Nursing Association said that their branches in 30 districts are involved in the strike.
Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Ajit Pawar urged the government to intervene to end the strike in the Assembly. He said that the health system has completely collapsed during the strike of the last two days.
The cases of H3N2 flu are increasing and the impact of the strike is affecting the common people. More than 150 surgeries are pending in a hospital. Due to the recent unseasonal rains, the process of conducting panchnamas for damage to crops has come to a standstill due to the strike.
Administration, education, health and other essential services have been affected. Significantly, lakhs of Maharashtra government employees are on strike since Tuesday demanding the restoration of the old pension scheme.
Appealing to call off the strike yesterday, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde said in the Vidhan Sabha that a three-member committee was being constituted to conduct a comparative study of the National Retired Salary Scheme and the old Retired Salary Scheme. The committee will submit its report in three months.
Retired Indian Administrative Service officers Subodh Kumar, K.P. Bakshi, Sudhir Kumar Srivastava. Along with this, the Director of Accounts and Treasury Department will look after the work as the secretary of this committee. This committee will submit its recommendation-report regarding the remedial plan to the government in three months.
Shinde said that the government is fully ready to discuss the demands of the employees and it is the role of the government to take a positive decision. Keeping this in mind, the Chief Minister has appealed to withdraw the strike so that the services of the citizens are not affected due to this strike and the patients of the health department are not inconvenienced.
To stop the strike, the government has also warned the employees to invoke the MESMA Act. MESMA’s term was to end in February 2023. In view of this, on Tuesday, the government got the Maharashtra Essential Services Security Act (MESMA) passed in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council.
Now the government can take action against the striking employees under MESMA. The government had yesterday decided to reinstate the law after state government employees threatened to go on strike. The government has extended this law for the next five years by introducing bills in this regard in both the Houses.
