Village assistants seek group ‘D’ recognition

Village assistants seek group ‘D’ recognition

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Nov 21, 2016: The district unit of the State Revenue Department Village Assistants Association has urged the State government to consider or recognise them as Group ‘D’ employees.

Addressing reporters here recently, Chandrashekhar Shettigar, president of district unit of the association, said that the members of the State unit of the association along with their families had decided to lay a siege to the Suvarna Soudha during the winter session of the State Legislature at Belagavi to press for this demand.

Though the State government had increased the salary of the village assistants from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 10,000 per month, this is not enough. It should be further increased, he said.

Again, the government had not paid their salaries for the last five months, he added. The government had hiked the salary from Rs. 7,000 to Rs. 10,000 in the 2016-17 State Budget. This additional sum (Rs. 3,000) has not been paid for the last eight months. “It is tough for us to lead our lives without salaries being paid for months together,” he said.

The government should frame cadre and recruitment rules and give promotion to those who had put in 10 years of service and fill the vacant posts in the revenue department, he said. The retiring village assistants should be given a relief of Rs. 2 lakh and retirement pension thereafter.

The medical allowance given to government employees should be extended to the families of village assistants, he said. There were 222 village assistants in Udupi district, Mr. Shettigar said.

Courtesy: The Hindu