Smarak Samiti Workers Temporarily Suspend Strike in Lucknow Amid Swachchta Mahabhiyaan

Lucknow- In a relief to the government, around 5300 employees of the Smarak Samiti have temporarily suspended their strike as the government observes Swachchta Mahabhiyaan from January 14th to January 22nd. However, they have not given up their demands, and their demonstration continues at the Kanshiram Eco Garden in Lucknow. The boycott of work is temporarily suspended.

The Mooknayak spoke to Kaushal Kishore "Aditya," one of the demonstrating employees who is also leading the movement. He said, "The employees have been demonstrating, but keeping in view the program of the Armed Forces at Ambedkar Antrik Kendra from January 13 to 15 and secondly, on the call of Swachchta Mahabhiyan given by the Chief Minister, we have decided to set aside our demands for a while and resume work till Jan 22. But our demonstration will continue, and we are sitting with the slogan of 'Aashwaashan nahi Sashanadesh Chahiye' (We don’t want assurance but government order).

Meanwhile, 17 of the employees have been transferred to Noida and Badalpur, where the samiti runs Dalit Prerna Sthal and Baba Saheb Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Park, respectively. Kaushal Kishore "Aditya," leading the demonstration, has been transferred to Badalpur, Vimlesh Kumar Verma has been transferred to Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal and Green Garden Noida, Ramesh Prasad Gupta to Dalit Prerna Sthal, Noida, Rajput Mithun Chandrapal to Babasaheb Bhim Rao Ambedkar Park Badalpur, Vijay Kumar Yadav to National Dalit Prerna Sthal. The 17 employees are already under suspension. The suspension letter was signed by LDA Vice-Chairman Indramani Tripathi, who is the member-secretary of the Smarak Samiti.

The suspension followed a turn of events in which the demonstrating employees allegedly misbehaved with a representative of the samiti, following which some of the employees were arrested by the police. This enraged the rest of the employees, who gheraoed the police station. The police released the detained employees, but an FIR was registered under sections 147, 149, and 353 of the Bhartiya Danda Samhita (Indian Penal Code) against around 57 people (7 named and 50 unnamed) for obstructing government work and preventing other employees from working.

The 5300 employees, who were appointed during the BSP regime for the maintenance of monuments built during its regime, have been demonstrating at the Kanshiram Green Eco Garden since December 18. They boycotted work from December 30. The demands of the employees include, among others, increasing the basic pay to Rs 1800 from Rs 1300 and action on the alleged NPS scam of Rs 800 crore, through which the 10% NPS deducted from their salaries has been siphoned off, and no one has the account of the money."

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