Staff REPORTER
ITANAGAR, Mar 31: The All Arunachal Pradesh Panchayati Raj Contractual Drivers & MTS Union appealed to the State Govt to either regularise contractual employees in the Panchayati Raj department or enhance their salaries, citing nearly 17 years of continuous service.
Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, the union’s convenor Dorjee Desisow said that drivers and multi-tasking staff (MTS) were initially appointed around 17 years ago with a monthly salary of Rs 4,000, which was later increased to Rs 10,000 following repeated representations.
“Since the last enhancement, there has been no further increment, and the current salary is becoming insufficient to meet basic livelihood needs due to the rising cost of living,” he said.
Claiming that a salary hike had been approved earlier, Desisow alleged that the government and the concerned department had backtracked on their assurances. “If regularisation is not possible, the government must at least revise the salary to ensure a basic standard of living,” he added.
Highlighting the financial strain faced by workers, he said the current remuneration is inadequate to meet essential family expenses, forcing several employees to resign. At present, around 191 MTS and 14 drivers are working on a contractual basis in the department.
The union also proposed a structured approach to address the issue, suggesting segregation of skilled and unskilled workers with corresponding pay scales, or alternatively, regularisation of eligible staff.
Raising further concerns, the union claimed that nearly 240 posts were recently created in the department, including 100 junior engineer (JE) posts, 100 upper division clerk (UDC) posts, and 40 positions earmarked for promotions and regularisation of data entry operators. However, it alleged that long-serving contractual workers were overlooked in the process.
Desisow said the union had met the concerned minister and departmental authorities, who assured that the matter would be taken up with the government. However, he expressed dissatisfaction, alleging a lack of intent on the part of the authorities to address their demands.
The union has announced a peaceful dharna on April 13 to press for its demands.