STATE TIMES NEWS
KARGIL: Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) observed complete shutdown in Kargil as a mark of protest against the government demanding Special Duty Allowance (SDA) for Ladakhi employees on the basis of recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission and office memorandum issued by Ministry of Finance, GoI, pay anomaly, regularisation of daily wagers and angandwadi workers’ pay related issues. EJAC Secretary Wilayat Ali Mir said “We are struggling for the last seven years in support of employees demands but unfortunately the government has not shown its serious concern.” Citing the Minister of Finance Haseeb Drabu’s recent statement in which he termed the demand of SDA as in illegible on the basis that Ladakhi employees are getting ‘Border allowance and Compensatory allowance’ already.
Rejecting Drabu’s statement in Assembly, EJAC said that no doubt the employees are getting compensatory allowance that too less than one per cent of the basic pay and no ‘Border allowance’ are being paid to the employees in Ladakh region but the employees are demanding SDA on the basis of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission and office memorandum issued by Ministry of Finance, GoI. The Central Government employees posted in Ladakh having equal job responsibilities to Central Government employees posted in Ladakh who are already enjoying chain of allowances like tribal area allowance, special duty allowance, bad climate allowance etc.