Agartala, March 12(TIWN): State government issued notification to striking MGNREGA employees to end their indefinite cease of work and resuming their duties from Wednesday. According to report, RD minister Naresh Jamatia has convened a meeting at secretariat on Tuesday last to discuss the demands of employees. The meeting was not a fruitful one, as minister did not give any written assurance for fulfilling the demands . Even after the issue of notification, the employees carried on indefinite strike.

The Tripura NREGA Karmachary Samannay Samity was on indefinite cease-work from March 8, 2014.

Talking to TIWN, Joydeep Kar spokeperson  of the samity said, ““We have observed that the TGKSS is struggling for years together to achieve 7-point demands related to the interests of the NREGS workers”, Speaking about key issues among the seven-point demands of the Samity, the secretary said that all employees engaged under the NREGS should be regularized sans the one-day break theory. NREGS employees were engaged in Dhalai district of the state way back in 2006 for the first time. The employees enjoyed continuous service for four years following which the state government introduced a one-day break after completion of every year to renew the employees.

Piling heat on the state government over the practice, TGKSS spokeperson  said that the model was deliberately introduced to deprive the NREGS employees of their legitimate service rights. “We demand TA, DA, special leave, accidental leaves, group insurance, die-in-harness, provident fund and all other rights of government employees forthwith. The pay scale of NREGS employees should be revised at par with the rising prices of daily necessities and other commodities”,