IMPHAL, July 10: Admitting that the demands by the JAC of All Manipur Trade Union Congress (AMTUC) and All Manipur Government Employees Organization (AMGEO) to the government are legitimate, Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh who also holds the portfolio of Finance appealed to the JAC to bear for some time with the government regarding fulfilment of their demands.
The CM was replying to a calling attention motion raised by opposition MLAs Dr I Ibohalbi Singh and L Ibomcha Singh during the last sitting of the 11th Session of the 10th Manipur Legislative Assembly today.
The calling attention motion was raised by the MLAs on `to call the attention of Chief Minister on the reported threat by AMTUC & AMGEO to launch cease work strike from July 20, 2015`™.
While moving the motion, MLA Dr I Ibohalbi Singh said that reiterated that the JAC had launched a 14 days long cease work strike in pursuance of its demands in 2010 after which it inked a MoU with the government on May 19, 2015.
Under the MoU which have six-point agreements, it was agreed that employees under the JAC will be provided with the 6th Pay Commission scale. However, the government failed to abide with the agreement, which led the JAC to launch cease work strike from July 20 to press the government to fulfil its 28-point charter of demands, said the MLA drawing the attention of the House.
Responding to the motion, Ibobi clarified that the demands of the JAC could not be fulfilled as of now due to the unstable financial position of the state though 7th Pay Commission scale for employees of Central Government is in the pipeline.
He said that employees of the Secretariat mainly of the Finance Department do know clearly about the total amount of the state Budget, how much have spent, where and for what purposes.
If all the demands made by the government employees are given without considering the state Budget then a situation will arise when vehicles issued to Commissioners/Secretaries under Government of Manipur, Ministers and MLAs have to be forbidden, the CM expressed.
It is not that the government is sidelining Muster Roll, Work Charge and Casual government employees who have working for the last 30 years. The fact of the matter is that the government does not have enough fund to fulfil their demands, he added.
Requesting the concerned government employees to bear with the government for more time regarding fulfilment of their legitimate demands, Ibobi assured that the government will hold discussion to fulfil some of the demands at the earliest.
However, it will be impossible to fulfil the all the demands on a one time basis, he stated.
Explaining that it will be a hard task to mitigate extra-financial expenditure given that the financial status of the state is unstable, the CM made a fervent appeal to the JAC to call off its proposed cease work agitation in the interest of the state.