Altogether 291 employees of District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) in 11 districts of the State began their pen-down strike from Friday, in protest against non-release of their salary. Their stir would continue till August 30.
A DRDA project director claimed that agency’s employees in all the districts were taking part in the phase-2 of their agitation.
He said the stir would affect official works, which would have a bearing on 1,200 villages across the State. DRDA is the nerve centre for rural development department.
“If DRDA’s functioning gets affected, it will lead to the block offices becoming immobile. The functioning of the rural department directorate too will be affected if DRDA offices stop functioning,” the PD explained.
As DRDA staff had to adhere to timelines and worked for various schemes in a time-bound manner, he said the pen-down strike would largely effect submission of reports. He added that if these reports were left unattended, they would jeopardise many rural development programmes, especially the Centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS).
It may be mentioned here that DRDA employees of Wokha district have not received their salary for the past 12 months, Kohima for 11 months, Dimapur, Mokokchung, Phek and Tuensang districts for six months, Kiphire, Longleng and Mon districts for five months and Peren and Zunheboto for three months.
The striking employees have informed this correspondent that after the expiry of their pen-down strike on August 30 and if their demand was not met by then, they would go for mass casual leave from September 2 to 6, and complete shutdown from September 7 onwards.
Meanwhile, rural development commissioner & secretary Bendangkokba told Nagaland Post that the department had discussed the matter with finance department and that files had been sent to chief minister’s office. But, he added as the chief minister was out of station, the salary would be release only after he returned and the files were cleared.
Mentioning that this was the only means to clear the salary, he explained that unless the department got assistance from the State government, it was not possible to clear the salary directly from the fund received from the Central government.
However, Bendangkokba could not give a timeline by when the ending salary would be paid as he said it depended on the chief minister agreeing to release the pending salary. It was up to the chief minister to decide, he added.
Wokha Correspondent adds: Interacting with Nagaland Post here at her office chambers, DRDA Wokha project director Thungdeno Mozhui said DRDA employees across the state had been compelled to go for such a move as their demands submitted in their representation to the government of Nagaland remains unfulfilled till date.
Mozhui also informed that it has been the long-pending desire and demand of DRDA employees that their pay and allowances be included under the state’s non-plan as the present system is based on the 90:10 ratio to be shared between the Centre and the state.