Published On : Tue, Jan 8th, 2019

Autos, bank, central staffers on strike today

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Nagpur: Central government and Maharashtra Bank employees and autorickshaw drivers are going on strike on Tuesday to protest against BJP-led government’s policies. Pharmacists had also decided to down their shutters but now they will only submit memorandums. However, the BJP-affiliated trade union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has decided not to participate in the strike.

Autorickshaw drivers affiliated to 16 different unions in the city, under the banner of Teen Seater Autorickshaw Chalak Samyukt Sangarsh Samiti, will stage an agitation at Samvidhan Square from 12 noon. The strike, which is a part of the two-day road blockade by the Samyukt Sangharsh Samiti, will be held as the government failed to listen to our grievances, said Harishchandra Pawar convener of the joint forum. “Autorickshaw drivers are losing their employment due to wrong transport polices of the government and also due to low fares offered to commuters by cab aggregators,” he said.

Nilesh Nasre, secretary of Confederation of Central Government Employees’ and Workers, said that many central employees will strike work on Tuesday and Wednesday over ten demands. The most important of them was scratching the new pension scheme and continuing the old one. The other demands including filling up of vacant posts, cancelling the order to scrap posts that have been vacant since five years, paying arrears of HRA, increase in minimum wages, etc. “Employees of Income Tax, Accounts and Audit, DPA & T, Postal III, Postal IV, RMS, IBM, GSI, DMI, CGHS, Civil Accounts, Regional Meteorological Office, etc will join the strike,” he said.

Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation members will also go on two-day strike. Hetal Thakkar, secretary of Nagpur District Chemists & Druggists Association, said that pharmacists were strongly against sale of medicines online. “We will submit a memorandum to district collector at 11am and then to joint commissioner of food and drugs administration (FDA),” he added. Meanwhile, employees of three state-run power companies — MSEDCL, Mahagenco and Mahatransco — went on a token strike on Monday.

They were opposing restructuring of their companies and appointment of distribution franchisees in Mumbra-Shil-Kalwa and Malegaon. The employees also claimed that government had decided to hand over the hydroelectric stations of Mahagenco to private companies. They claimed that these developments will have adverse effect on consumers. MSEDCL officials said that the strike had negligible effect on consumer services as most employees were at work.