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Chhattisgarh: 12,371 MGNREGA contractual workers resign en masse
The mass resignation of MGNREGA employees comes after 21 assistant project officers under the scheme were terminated from service on Friday.
RAIPUR: All 12,371 contractual MGNREGA employees, who were on strike demanding regularisation of services, resigned en masse from work on Saturday, said the Chhattisgarh MGNREGA Karamchari Mahasangh.
The mass resignation comes after 21 employees posted as assistant project officers (APOs) under MGNREGA schemes were terminated from service on Friday, June 3.
“We the workers of MGNREGA have been protesting since April this year demanding better payment and regularisation among other things,” Tikamchand Kaushik, vice president of Chhattisgarh MGNREGA Karamchari Mahasangh told the media.
“On Friday evening, the state government suddenly terminated the service of 21 APOs. In protest against the decision and support of our demand, all 12,371 employees, including 9,000 rojgar sahayak (employment assistant) tendered mass resignation,” he added.
Kaushika further averred that the ruling Congress had promised to regularise the work of MGNREGA workers during the 2018 election, however, the government took no initiative to fulfil this promise after it came to power.
“We just want job security as we have given a better part of our life to this service,” he further added.
As the protest persisted, the chief minister Bhupesh Baghel-led Congress government last month announced a hike in the honorarium of employment assistants working under MGNREGA from ₹5,000 to ₹9,540.
“A decision on the demands related to service conditions of MGNREGA employees will be taken after getting the report of a committee set up by the government in this regard,” said an official.
