Arunachal Government Servants on Strike for 7th Pay Commission

Arunachal Pradesh witnessed the second day of the pen and tool down strike called by the Confederation of Service Associations of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) on Saturday. The strike has been called in furtherance of having the 7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) implemented for state government employees. The method of strike involves going to office, marking attendance, but not working. The present agitation by CoSAAP has only added to the various agitations across the country for the 7th CPC recommendations to be implemented.

The state government has taken a stern view of the matter. Chief minister, Pema Khandu has threatened that all those participating in the second day would be treated as having a break in their service. He also said that he was not opposed to terminating their services. However, the disquiet had been growing since at least May this year.

In May, the CoSAAP expressed their displeasure at the state government for announcing that they would be constituting a new committee to study the feasibility of implementing the 7th CPC. They accused the government of buying time as a committee headed by Abdul Basit, the Director of Audits and Pensions, had already submitted a report. In July, the CoSAAP accused the state government of discriminating against state government employees since employees of the All India Services (IAS) were being paid in accordance with the 7th CPC.

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On October 4, the CoSAAP announced that they would launch an agitation in three phases. The first phase which commenced on Friday would constitute two days of pen and tool down strike. The second phase will take place on October 23 to 26, which too would be a pen and tool down strike. If the demands are not met, the third phase will be launched from November 8, which will be an indefinite strike.

In their October 4 declaration the CoSAAP clarified that employees and departments like water supply, electricity, drivers attached with VVIPs, doctors and nurses in hospitals, state transport services, magistrates on duty, sanitation, fire brigade, IPR on press duty, veterinary hospitals, and police will not participate in the agitation. These service members would instead wear black badges in solidarity.

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Apart from Khandu’s threats against the striking state government employees, he also mentioned that revenue expenditure constitutes 60% of the state’s total expenditure, and that would leave only 40% remaining for developmental work. As such he appealed to the striking employees to desist from the strike. However, when one looks at the figures provided by the Reserve Bank of India in its annual publication State Finances: A Study of Budgets the Chief Minister’s statement regarding expenditure appears false.

According to data available, year 2017 – 2018, Arunachal Pradesh had total revenue receipts amounting to around Rs 14,600 crore and total capital receipts of around Rs. 89,300 crore. Which would amount to a total revenue of Rs. 1,04,000 crore. In terms of expenditure, capital expenditure far outstrips revenue expenditure at around Rs. 92,545 crore and Rs. 11,197 crore, respectively. This means that in the previous financial year, about 88.99% of the revenue was used for capital expenditure, whereas about 10.77% was spent on revenue expenditure.

It is evident that the Chief Minister’s intentions were to turn public opinion against the CoSAAP while threatening them with disciplinary action at the same time. Perhaps he has succeeded since Arunachal Times published an anonymous letter to the editor which condemned the strike. The letter ironically mentioned that the striking CoSAAP members should think about the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan employees who do not get paid regularly and not be so greedy.