Dimapur, September 24 : Workers in the Social Welfare department have announced agitations to demand redress for alleged discrepancies in promotion and growth opportunities to a class of designated job profiles.
The All Nagaland Social Welfare Field Staff Employees’ Association (ANSWFSEA) issued a press release on Saturday alleging ‘deprivation of timely promotion’ besides denial to uniform ‘upgradation’ in the work profiles of supervisor and Child Development Project Officer (CDPO).
The organisation has readied a ‘non-violent sit-in protest’ at the directorate of Social Welfare in Kohima on September 27. This will be followed by “picketing / lockdown of directorate and hunger strike” in phases in the ‘consequent days.’
The press release from the group stated their contention in regard to promotional avenues for the post of supervisor, besides alleged discrepancies in the grading and promotion of the CDPO. The Supervisor is the ‘backbone of ICDS’ and a vital functionary in the ICDS setup across India, the organization stated. “However, in our state, the supervisors despite being recruited through the Nagaland Public Service Commission (NPSC) are deprived of timely promotion and career progression even after rendering more than 20 years of continuous service in the department,” the Social Welfare employees stated.
The organisation lamented that the ‘past many years’ have seen the association pointing out “inherent defects in the existing service rules.” This, the press release stated, includes the Nagaland Social Security and Welfare Service (Revised) Rules of 1997 “which are regressive and inimical to the welfare of the serving employees, especially the Supervisor.”
If the trend continues, many of the supervisors despite being recruited directly through NPSC may have to retire without any promotion, they stated.
‘Several supplications, proposals’ were also submitted to the government for remedial measures, the ANSWFSEA lamented. ‘...but have gone unheeded. In contrast, political manipulations and other malpractices are galore accentuating abnormal stagnancy. This fact can be gauged by the number of backdoor appointments regularised by the Government flouting its own rules and regulations in the last 5-10 years, a sad travesty.’
Another point of grievance that the ANSWFSEA raised was the prospects of professional growth of the CDPO profile. In 2011, the ANSWFSEA stated, when the post of the Child Development Project Officer was upgraded “en bloc” from class-II gazette to class-I gazette, “the immediate subordinates, the supervisor class-Ill non-gazette were denied simultaneous up gradation to that of class-II gazette creating unwarranted hierarchical gap between the CDPO (class-I gazette) and the supervisors (class-Ill non-gazette).
This is in ‘stark contravention’ to the government rules, “rendering the service rules and regulations irrelevant,” the employees complained.
“Against such dysfunctional system and apathy unbecoming of responsible authority in the era of welfare government, the association, left with no other option served the charter of demand and took up agitation course of action to seek redress to its grievances,” the association stated. The ANSWFSEA also said that the government had assured 'favourable action' in the wake of agitations in 2014. Following the assurance, the association said to have refrained from agitating further.
“Subsequently, the association also withdrew a court case against those CDPOs presently on contract basis in 2015, on an agreement that government would implement amendment of new service rule for the supervisors. But till date, the government has failed to keep up its commitment and against such backdrop, the association is compelled to resume agitations,” the statement added.
