Agartala, July 4: Hundreds of irregular government employees flooded the streets of Agartala on Friday, demanding the regularization of their services and fulfillment of BJP’s 2018 pre-poll assurances.
Organized under the banner of ‘Tripura Oniyomito Karmachari Moncho’, the ‘Mahakaran Abhiya’ rally marched towards the state Secretariat to submit a memorandum to the Chief Secretary JK Sinha.
The rally, marked by banners and slogans outlining their demands, was halted midway at the Circuit House area by a large contingent of security forces.
Advocate Purushottam Roy Barman, a prominent human rights activist leading the agitation, stated that approximately 40,000 irregular employees have served across various Tripura government departments for 30 to 40 years.
He demanded the formulation of a scheme to regularize all such workers who have completed at least ten years of service.
The demands extend to retired irregular employees, calling for a one-time reasonable financial settlement.
Furthermore, the protesters insisted on “equal pay for equal work,” highlighting that many permanent vacant posts are filled by irregular employees who are denied even minimum wages.
Roy Barman accused the ruling BJP of reneging on a key 2017 pre-election promise to regularize all irregular state government employees, including part-time and contingent workers.
He expressed shock and frustration that instead, the BJP-led government repealed the then existing 2007 regularization scheme via a circular on July 31, 2018. “Since the past seven to eight years, not a single irregular employee has been regularised,” he stated.
The agitators warned that if the state government fails to honor its 2017 commitment and address their demands sensitively following today’s memorandum submission, they would be forced to launch larger street agitations in the coming days.
Later, a seven-member delegation from the rally met with the Chief Secretary and formally submitted their charter of demands.
