Maha Govt staff observe 2-hour "strike" for demands

Maharashtra Government employees, staffers of all municipal bodies and Zilla Parishads in the state today boycotted work for two hours to highlight their pending demands.
"If the demands are not met, we will organise a maha morcha at Vidhan Bhawan in Nagpur on December 16, during the winter session of state legislature," Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers' Federation founder and chief advisor G D Kulthe said here.
"The chief minister had earlier justified our demands and started a process of holding meetings two years ago," he said. "The staff may resort to an indefinite strike on the issue," he said.
Maharashtra State Gazetted Officers' Federation, an umbrella body of 72 organisations in the state, feels that several benefits accorded to Central government employees were not being given to the state govt staff.

The demands include filling up of vacant posts, having strict rules about violence against government officials, a five-day week, no contractual workers and decentralisation of transfer powers.
There are 1,20,000 gazetted officers in the state and 15 lakh non-gazetted workers.
State government employees, staffers and officials of zilla parishad and municipal bodies across the state, instead of reporting for duty at 10 am, today assembled outside their offices as part of the protest and started working two hours later.