Sewa kendra staff go on pen-down strike to push for pending demands

Ludhiana: In a setback for the general public, the contractual staff of sewa kendra mini secretariat remained on pen-down strike on Monday. The staff came to work, but did not help visitors as mark of protest against the non fulfilment of their demands by the government.
The residents were were caught unaware though and wasted a journey to the kendra in the heat.
According to Jaswinder Singh, resident of Jawaddi, “We faced inconvenience at sewa kendra due to the strike. I came here today to get a duplicate copy of my revenue documents, but my work could not be done due to the strike of the employees. Had I known about this, I would have not come today and now again I will have to return tomorrow for getting my work done.”
Meanwhile, despite repeated attempts, the representative of the Sewa Kendra Employee Union could not be contacted, but the employees who were present today at the mini secretariat’s sewa kendra said their major demands include revision of their pay to a minimum of Rs 20,000.
Besides this they said they are also demanding that the transfers and postings of employees should be done only in the centres near their homes as well as restoration of the pay that they were not given during the lockdowns.
Employees are also demanding that they be given off on all gazetted holidays according to Punjab government’s schedule and they should also be given off on every last Saturday of the month. The employees have also repeated their old demand of restoring the Sunday offs, which have been cancelled by the government permanently.