29 August, Srinagar — On Tuesday, engineers employed by the Power Development Department (PDD) vowed to take a one-day protest leave in response to unmet demands on September 9.
PDD engineers, as per, said while addressing a news conference today in Srinagar, “On 09 September all HOD’s to JE’s will go on protest leave against adhocism and other genuine issues.”
According to them, the department has utterly failed to deal with HR-related problems, which regrettably have not yet been remedied. “On September 9, all grade levels of power engineers at J&K PDD will take a day off in protest against the mistreatment of workers who provide their blood and sweet at odd and even hours. In response to the unreasonable delay in satisfying our requests, a demonstration would be held in Bemina, they said.
Regarding regularisations, they said that many engineers who have been requested to occupy roles of greater responsibility still get the pay associated with their former posts as opposed to the incomes associated with their new ones. They continue to receive the pay associated with their prior grades. They said that they had never received promotions in the previous 30 years.
As an instance, PDD engineers informed the media that although IAS and KAS officials in the Civil Secretariat are receiving the proper pay and benefits, PDD engineers have unluckily been made to endure severe hardships.
“Recently, we met with the Principal Secretary of the J&K government at Raj Bhawan. Additionally, a petition with over 200 signatures was sent to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha two weeks ago with the hope that he would give our complaints the attention they deserved, but all of this was in vain.
They pleaded with the government, which was headed by LG, to look at their problems sympathetically and meet their outstanding requests as soon as possible. “Salaries should be paid as required, vacancies should be filled quickly, and appointments should be made to lighten the load on current employees.”
