IMPHAL, May 16: The Joint Administrative Council of All Manipur Trade Union Council (AMTUC) and All Manipur Government Employees Organization (AMGEO) has renewed its lingering demand for the implementation of the central 6th revised pay commission recommendation in toto in the State. The JAC said that it will come out with strong resolutions on safeguarding the interest of government employees on May 17 to coincide with observing the first “Dark Day” to commemorate May 17, 2010. On the day members of the JAC, including old pensioners, were arrested by police from the high security area of Babupara following a demonstration demanding pay raise. They were lodged in lockups for two days, stated a press statement of the JAC.It further said that the demand for the implementation of 6th revised pay recommendation by government employees of the state has been characteristically denied by the Ibobi Singh led government much to the anguish of the employees.“Even as the neighboring states like Nagaland and Assam have long implemented 6th pay, the employees of Manipur have been deprived even at the face of high inflation,” the statement said. The JAC has submitted a series of memorandum to the incumbent chief minister regarding their demand for the implementation of 6th pay; however the government has chosen not to respond, it added.At the beginning of 2010, the JAC had gone on a 4 months long cease work strike but the stalemate could not be broken. School students were the most hit with the teachers refusing to attend classes during the strike, it further maintained.Not getting any positive response from the government the All Manipur Pensioners’ Union had resorted to relay hunger strike that went on for 105 days. Some pensioners reportedly died during the agitation, it stated. The Council of Teachers’ Association had also supported and joined the hunger strike, stated the release. As the agitation breached 4 months during the series of agitations spreading for more than a year, the JAC finally got invited on May 17, 2010 by the chief minister to hammer out a solution but any semblance to resolution of the issue between the government and the agitating employees eluded.The JAC alleged that the meeting of May 17 at the invitation of the chief minister was an attempt to browbeat and deceive the aggrieved government employees. The few conditions that were presented before the chief minister were outrightly rejected closing the door for further negotiation, stated of JAC.
