PUDUCHERRY: The strike of employees of municipalities and commune panchayats in the UT, over the government not keeping up the assurance of allocating funds in the budget for regular payment of their salaries and pensions, was called off on Thursday.
According to K Radhakrishnan, Joint Convenor of Puducherry State Municipal Commune Panchayat Employees and Retired Employees Joint Struggle Committee, the decision was taken after Chief Minister N Rangasamy promised to constitute a high-level committee to work out the payment of their salaries and pension directly by the government instead of by the local bodies individually, by examining the procedures followed in other States.
Earlier in the day, the joint struggle committee that spearheaded the strike besieged the Directorate of Local Administration department office, and were joined by leader of Opposition R Siva and other DMK MLAs. The strike had begun on August 22.
A long-standing issue
For the past few years, salaries of the employees of local bodies have been pending for several months to even a year. According to S Sivakumar, Commissioner of Puducherry Municipality, the paucity of revenue delays the payment of salaries and pension, which is at par with government employees.
Though there are many sources for mobilising the revenue, the UT government is not giving a free hand to the local bodies in raising it, said Radhakrishnan. While the requirement to pay about 3,000 employees of local bodies is around Rs 160 crore, only around Rs 110 crore is generated, he said.
The revenue has declined as people are not coming forward to pay the taxes and licences. The Octroi compensation, which fetched a substantial amount, has also stopped. Moreover, Entertainment tax from Cable TV operators has gone dry for over four years due to litigation. Now with the verdict coming in favour of the government, new rules are yet to be framed by the local administration department for levying the tax, taking into account the technical changes that have come in recent times, he said .
The property tax in the UT is abysmally low, while in adjoining areas of Tamil Nadu it is three to five times higher. Even when it was raised nominally, it was brought down by 25% by the government. Moreover, there is political interference whenever municipalities try to adopt strong measures to collect the arrears of property tax and other tax dues. The rent of municipal buildings and shops too remain very nominal. When Puducherry Municipality tried to charge parking fees for vehicles, to generate revenue, it was also cancelled by the government.
The Joint Struggle Committee has given several letters on behalf of the protest group urging the government to pay their salaries and pensions directly by taking their revenue and met Chief Minister N Rangasamy in March this year. The CM had then assured to constitute a committee and work out payment of their salaries by allocating funds in the budget.
Strike affected services
Municipal services across Puducherry, which have been on a standstill for over a week due to employees' strike, have affected people in the UT. The employees of the five municipalities and 10 commune panchayats in the UT began the strike after the government did not keep up the assurance of allocating funds in the budget for regular payment of their salaries and pensions.
Take the case of Sahayaraj who came from France spending Rs 80,000 to register his marriage, he couldn't do it even after a week's stay. According to Praveen Kumar Nair, assistant public prosecutor, the strike has meant some cases in court had to be adjourned as either petitioners or defence could not submit birth certificates.