Docs, enggs threaten stir if govt meets group A demand

Aizawl, May 28 (UNI) Doctors and engineers here today threatened to stage an agitation if the state government succumbed to the demands of the Ggroup A officers.

A joint meeting of the Mizoram Government's Doctors' Association(MGDA) and the Mizoram Engineering Service Association(MESA) came after the Mizoram Government Group A Officers' Co-ordination Committee demanded the government to rectify its measures to create pay parity with their engineer counterparts within the month of May failing which they would go for an indefinite mass-casual-leave strike from first June.

''If the Group A officers get whatever they want just because they hold the top posts and are large in number, we will not wait to take steps to have what we want, and all our members are hereby informed to be ready in case of such situation,'' MESA general secretary Vanlaltlana told UNI.

Vanlaltlana said the chief minister advisers had separate meetings with group A officers, engineers and doctors in order to rectify their pay structures and posts.

''We found it hard to understand why the Group A officers strongly objected to the chief minister's advisers' proposals regarding the engineers' pay structure while they had no difficulties in accepting their new pay structure,'' he said.

MGDA president Dr Gordon Zohmingthanga also said, ''To resolve any problems, the government will have to use a give-and-take policy, therefore, the Group A officers have to rethink their decision (to go on strike).

It may be noted here that the government had employed the Maintenance of Essential Service Act to bring an end to the problematic Group A officers' strike last year. And that the group A officers have vowed that this time round even the MESA would not stop them from seeing their demand being met with.

The doctors and the engineers have appreciated the government's decision to create posts for them at the secretariat (which is strongly objected to by group A officers), and iterated that this would bring great advantages to the public, while also pointing out that this is the same practice in other states of India. ''We request (the government) the same for those in the Veterinary, Agriculture and Police departments as well.'' ''This (creating engineers and doctors posts at secretariat) will take away no one's share, and there's no point of objecting it for the Group A officers since it is beyond pay parity,'' they said.

The doctors-and-engineers' statement also made it clear that the government's decision to create new pay structure for engineers and doctors was following a Supreme Court's order and a High Court order respectively, and iterated that the Group A officers were beneficiaries of the same.

UNI