Madhya Pradesh will take disciplinary action against employees who protest in a “shameful and indecent” manner against the state government, a general administration department official said, requesting anonymity.
The official said an order will be issued in this regard soon on the directions of chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who objected to panchayat secretaries protesting against the government half-naked, alleging they were not paid salaries.
“State government employees shouldn’t stage protests in a shameful manner by tonsuring their heads and getting half-naked. They are working in responsible posts and shouldn’t behave indecently,” said state home minister Narottam Mishra.
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Under the new rules, Mishra said, disciplinary action will be taken against employees indulging in indecent protest for violating the civil services rules.
“All departments have been asked to inform employees about the civil services rules and what is inappropriate behaviour,” said another officer of the general administration department.
Employee union leaders alleged it was the first time the state government was “trying to take our democratic right of protest away, citing civil service rules”.
“In the past few weeks, over 2,000 employees of 313 janpad panchayats and the rural development department have been booked by police for violating orders duly promulgated by public officers. They were suspended and some contractual employees were fired. We never saw such inhuman and undemocratic behaviour against employees for staging protests. Now, they are calling it a violation of civil services rules,” said Dinesh Sharma, a leader of the employee union.
{{/usCountry}}“In the past few weeks, over 2,000 employees of 313 janpad panchayats and the rural development department have been booked by police for violating orders duly promulgated by public officers. They were suspended and some contractual employees were fired. We never saw such inhuman and undemocratic behaviour against employees for staging protests. Now, they are calling it a violation of civil services rules,” said Dinesh Sharma, a leader of the employee union.
{{/usCountry}}The employees said if the government fulfils their demand on time, they will not protest.
“We staged a protest only after our demands were not met for a long time. Protests are the only way to bring our long-pending demands to the attention of officers and ministers towards, and the now government wants to snatch away our right. We won’t tolerate this suppressive decision,” said Laxminarayan Sharma, general secretary, MP Class 3 Employees Association.
The Congress also supported the employees’ unions. “The BJP-led state government is coming up with such decisions as they are afraid of being exposed. The government fooled the employees and is now trying to suppress them. We are with them and will not allow the state government to behave undemocratically,” said KK Mishra, spokesperson, MP Congress Committee.
However, the BJP said the decision to stop “indecent” protests is not to suppress anyone. “The government employees are part of the system and they should behave decently. They can sit on dharna, stage protests and shout slogans, but does it look nice to take off clothes and to break earthen pots? The employees themselves should feel that they should adopt a decent and appropriate way of staging protest,” said Rajneesh Agrawal, spokesperson, BJP.