Uttar Pradesh / Sonbhadra: Protest among irrigation employees after displeasure over declaring posts as dead cadre, memorandum submitted

The news is from Sonbhadra district where, under the banner of Irrigation Union Joint Employees Struggle Committee, employees, under the leadership of District President Ashwani Tiwari, organized a day-long sit-in protest in the Irrigation Department office premises in the city today, in protest against declaring 17 posts including Tubewell Operator, Irrigation Officer, Munshi, Head Munshi as dead cadre in the Uttar Pradesh Irrigation Department. After this, reaching the Collectorate, the employees submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister at the District Magistrate’s office. While raising slogans, the protesting officials called this policy of the government as one that would take away jobs and also warned of agitation in case the government order is not withdrawn. During this, in a media interview, District President Ashwani Tiwari and Provincial Joint Minister Devman Prasad jointly said that “The government has decided to eliminate about 45 thousand vacancies of 17 cadres of the Irrigation Department. These include the posts of tube well driver, irrigation officer, head clerk, irrigation officer. These are the backbone of tube well and canal operation. He said that on one hand the government is saying that it is farmer friendly. If the canals are closed, how will the farmer do farming? This has caused anger among the employees. In case the demands are not met, a state level protest will be organized on June 20. The organization demands that the government order be withdrawn. To provide employment to the youth, these posts need to be filled and not abolished.” During this, a joint memorandum was submitted by a large number of irrigation employees including Rajesh Kumar Singh (District Magistrate), Ashwani Tripathi, Ravi Sharma, Dev Man Prasad, Arun Kumar, Ajay Bharti, Suresh Prasad, Satyam Patel, Rakesh Kumar Singh, Bhavanath Singh Yadav.