Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 2: State Graduate engineers of all cadres (CEs, SEs, XENs, AEEs, AEs & JEs) and all wings (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical) under the banner of State Joint Action Committee of All J&K Graduate Engineers Associations observed one day mass casual leave/ strike as a mark of protest against discrimination with State engineers.
Demanding issuance of SRO for release of time bound running grades/ Assured Career Progression, regularization of services of engineers at all levels, cadre review in Engineering Departments, removal of pay anomalies of engineers at all levels and enhancement of fixed travelling allowance, a massive protest dharna was observed at Lok Nirman Bhawan, Rail Head Complex, Jammu by the engineers to register their protest. Entire engineering fraternity from all wings/ departments participated with full enthusiasm in the day long protest program.
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Speaking on the occasion, Gandeep Pargal, president All J&K Graduate Engineers Association lauded the recent announcement of Finance Minister through media that SRO for extending the benefits of time bound running grades/ assured career progression to J&K Engineering Gazetted Services at par with doctors immediately after opening of Darbar at Srinagar, but at the same time vociferously demanded to make the announcement a practical one without any further delay for which entire engineering fraternity is eagerly waiting.
Harvinder Singh, president JKEEGA emphasized that the Junior Engineer cadre has wrongly been placed in 4200 Grade Pay instead of 4260 for the last 7 years whereas, in 2010 Govt has already rectified pay anomaly of Junior Engineers but the administration is hesitating in implementation of the same for which necessary order need to be issued.
Deepak Gupta, representative of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Association laid thrust on regularization of services of engineers at all levels on the basis of work and conduct certificate / integrity certificate issued by HoDs and counter signed by respective Administrative Secretaries for which the engineers are facing huge discrimination since last more than 30 years due to which Graduate engineers are forced to work on half salary and retiring in the grade of Junior Engineers inspite of serving as XENs and above.
Mujib Tak, chief patron GEASSOC and other speakers stressed upon review of cadre in Engineering Departments which has not been reviewed since 1987 whereas, cadre of all the departments other than engineering Departments have been reviewed time to time.
The speakers further demanded implementation of directions of Supreme Court regarding release of Pay Band-4 in favour of Superintending Engineers post in toto. They also demanded enhancement of FTA from existing Rs 30 PM to Rs 5000 PM.
Meanwhile, the Association deferred the further protest on the assurance by the Finance Minister that the SRO will be issued immediately after the opening of Darbar at summer capital Srinagar.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included ZA Malik, Gopal Sharma, Rahat Gupta, Rajesh Bhagat, Anil Thapa, Ashish Bhasin, Ashok Tandon, Neeraj Sharma, Kulb-hushan Bhau, Sanjeev Sharma, Sumesh Hangloo , Arafat Masud, Mohd Taj, Rajan Mengi, Sudhir Kumar, Mohinder Manhas, Avhineet Gupta, Navneet , Arush Mahajan, Amit Sethi, besides many Chief Engineers- Ashok Gandotra, SP Manhas, Amrish Raina, Ajay Anand and Superintending Engineers- Ajay Singh Wazir, RK Gandotra, Balbir Singh and DR Bhagat.
Reports of similar protests by engineers have received from Srinagar, Leh and other District/ Divisional and Sub Divisional headquarters.
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