AAP government to take action against DASS cadre

The AAP government is in the process of cracking the whip on the Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services (DASS) cadre employees, who have been on strike outside the Players Building demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission in the national capital.

Taking a serious note of the ongoing strike by the DASS employees, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia on Friday called their attendance sheet and hinted strict action against those who were not attending official work. Mr Sisodia’s office even asked the HoDs to submit details on all those employees who did not turn up by 10 am at their respective workstations.

Considered as the backbone of the city government’s administrative machinery, the 26,000-odd DASS cadre employees have been demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and restructuring of the cadre for more avenues for promotion. The DASS cadre employees first went on hungerstrike on September 16, but all in vain. They had reportedly been assured by the chief secretary (CS) that their demands would be promptly looked into. The CS is said to have also written three letters to ministry of finance, requesting that the pay scale of common category employees of the Delhi government be delinked from other Union Territories.

At a recent high-level meeting, chaired by Mr Sisodia, the issue of the DASS cadre employees agitation was discussed at length. A confidential note issued by the government said: “Some unlawful elements of the Delhi government have gone on strike. The behaviour of the striking employees deserves immediate action under the conduct rules by the concerned disciplinary authorities. The deputy chief minister has directed all heads of the departments to issue strict warning to all their employees that the government will consider all necessary action, including termination of the employees indulging in unlawful activities.”

The DASS cadre employees are on a hungerstrike for the past two weeks. They had even gheraoed chief minister Arvind Kejriwal last week, who in return is said to have assured them that their demands would be fulfilled within a week. “But nothing has happened till date. And we will continue out agitation till our demands are fulfilled,” a DASS cadre employee told this newspaper.

Another DASS cadre employee said that Mr Kejriwal, during his first 49-day tenure as the CM, had promised to fulfill their demands. “But the same CM is now not fulfilling his own promise. We have been discriminated by both the state as well as the Central government for the past many years.”

The DASS Association had made several representations to lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung, the CM and the finance ministry during the past one year, but all in vain. “It is only during the elections that political parties promise to address our genuine issues. Once they are in power, they forget to deliver upon their promises.”