Congress joins state employees in condemning Yogi govt’s drive against senior staff

The Uttar Pradesh State Employee’s Joint Council, the outfit representing nearly 16 lakh state government employees, has threatened a massive strike against the Uttar Pradesh government should it press ahead with its recent order aimed at retrenching government staff over 50 years of age.

“The order is dictatorial in its very nature. It attacks the interests of lower-scale government workers. They want to get rid of experienced persons in the government so that they could outsource the work to their own cronies in the private sector. It is a model of outsourcing government work that they are following across the country,” Sanjeey Pandey, the President of State Employee’s Joint Council, told National Herald from Lucknow.

A recent order by Uttar Pradesh’s chief secretary has called for reviewing of performance of government staff over the age of 50 till July 31. The government order cites finance handbook rules, which say that the authorities could retire employees who have crossed the age of 50 just by issuing a three-month notice and without any offering an explanation.

Pandey explained that there was a sense of resentment among government employees against the Yogi government for issuing such a notification, which he said was also intended to send out a message to government servants who dared to question Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) schemes and policies.

“We are meeting on July 20. If they go ahead and carry out the order, we won’t hesitate to go on a strike. The functioning of the entire state would be crippled,” said Pandey.

“One of our main reservations about the order is that it also includes Group B and Group C employees, who are responsible for running the day-to-day operations of essential departments like roadways, health, electricity and education,” said Pandey, adding that the organisation would haven’t raised such a hue-and-cry if the order was just meant for bureaucrats.

Ajay Kumar Lallu, the leader of Congress MLAs in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, told NH that his party would oppose the government order tooth-and-nail in the upcoming monsoon session of the Uttar Pradesh assembly.

“We stand with the government employees of Uttar Pradesh. We will join them in protesting this order,” said Lallu, a two-term MLA.

Lallu noted that the BJP, whererever it was in power, was killing government jobs just for the benefit of a few of its allies in the private sector.

“This is just not a case in Uttar Pradesh. They have been outsourcing government jobs to private contractors, who in most cases are close to their local leaderships, across India,” noted Lallu.

The Congress leader also attacked the BJP government over its inability to create jobs for the youth as it had promised at the time of state elections last year.

“As it is, they are unable to create jobs. On the contrary, they are taking away jobs of the people. They have betrayed both the employed and the unemployed,” he said.

A response from BJP’s Uttar Pradesh incharge and national vice-president Om Prakash Mathur was still awaited at the time of publishing this story. NH also contacted the deputy chief minister, Dinesh Verma, but to no avail. The story will be updated with the responses as soon as they come in.