10,000 Nagpur Municipal Corporation staff back, other services remain paralysed

NAGPUR: Services in state government offices continued to remain disrupted for the third consecutive day due to the strike by government employees. However, around 10,000 employees of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) returned to work wearing black armbands to show their support for the agitating state federation.
President of Rashtriya Nagpur Corporation Employees Association (INTUC), Surendra Tingne, confirmed that NMC employees have resumed work. He could not give a satisfactory reply about the reason for their return to work when demands, including arrears of sixth and seventh pay commissions, have not been met by the civic administration.
Sources said that many returned to work after the civic administration started taking action against the striking employees. On Wednesday, the civic administration had served show cause notices to around 219 striking staff, and warned them of action if they remained absent without prior intimation. So, the employees returned to work, sources said.
Tingne clarified that the association met municipal commissioner and administrator Radhakrishnan B, who assured to look into their demands after the C20 summit.
Meanwhile, work at all the three Regional Transport Offices (RTO) remained affected on Thursday. Transporters were the worst hit as many of them could not renew their lapsed national permits. “Apart from business loss, now we will have to pay a penalty for renewing the permits,” said transporters.
Employees in the education department said that teachers’ unions will continue to stay away from evaluation work till the government comes up with a concrete solution to their demands. At the same time, they maintained that teachers will be sent for invigilation work so as not to hamper conduct of board exams. In the education department office, the majority of employees stayed away from work on Thursday as well.
The strike over pension continued in the property registrar offices throughout the region. Work remained to be at a standstill at the registrar offices in the rural area. These offices are manned by class 2 staffers who are on strike. Barring the office at Hingna, all other rural units remained under strike. There was no call to withdraw the agitation said a union source.