NEW DELHI: A delegation of Srinagar Centaur Hotel Employees, led by Peer M. Ismaiel, General Secretary, Centaur Hotel Employees’ Union, today called on Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) and MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh and sought his intervention for redressal of their longstanding grievances, both related to their pay anomalies as well as the working of the hotel set – up.
In a memorandum submitted to Dr Jitendra Singh, the members of delegation pointed out that the revision of their wage structure had not taken place since 2002, after the Fifth Central Pay Commission Report. As a result, they complained that, while their counterparts in other sectors of government were drawing salary many times higher than them, they were still stuck up in a wage structure which was prevalent nearly two decades ago. This, they alleged, had led to an extreme degree of deprivation and financial instability for them, as a consequence of which, many of their colleagues had developed depression and other health-related problems.
The memorandum also submitted that the Parliamentary Standing Committee has recommended implementation of the revisions and in addition, Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has also forwarded its verdict to the Ministry of Labour and Employment directing immediate implementation of the revisions.
Singh gave a patient hearing to the members of delegation and said, he would take up the issue with the Union Ministry for Civil Aviation, because Hotel Centaur happens to be an Air India undertaking. Besides the issue of pay revision as demanded by employees, he said, there was a wider issue of a multi-crore precious property in the form of Hotel Centaur located at the prize location alongside Dal Lake in Srinagar, which should not, by any means, remain under-utilized and also deserves to be developed as a favourite tourist rendezvous.
Singh said, after receiving the views from the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, if required, the matter could also be taken up with the State Government of Jammu and Kashmir to decide the future fate of the Centaur Hotel property. He also responded to the employees’ concern regarding, what they described as, poor maintenance and need for upkeep of the existing building complex.