Malda civic body set to retrench casual workers

Statesman News Service

MALDA, July 13: The English Bazaar Municipality chairman, Mr Narendranath Tiwari, today said that almost all non-Left councillors of the municipality have agreed to carry out the government order to retrench casual workers recruited since 1992. “Though the EBM’s service system would be thrown out of gear after the retrenchment, it is necessary to teach a lesson to the CPI-M councillors, who had lodged a complaint on the matter of casual staff with the directorate of local bodies,” Mr Tiwari said. He added: “We have decided to carry out the government order on the matter and discontinue the services of the casual staff. The Left councillors and the Left Front government would be responsible for the wretched condition it would lead to.” It may be noted that in a letter to the EBM chief on 9 July Mr SK Bhowmick, joint director, municipal affairs has asked the board to ‘disengage’ all causal staff within seven days from the date of receipt of the letter. The EBM has since 1992 engaged nearly 1,200 causal workers. Claiming that many of the casual workers had been recruited by the previous CPI-M led board,” the EBM chief observed that the CPI-M would also feel the pinch once the retrenchment order is carried out. The non-left political orgainsations backed permanent and causal workers of the EBM staged a demonstration near the municipal office to draw the attention of the common people. They have also decided to confine Mr Tiwari to draw the attention of the administration and seek stay order against the DLB’s instruction. The Left backed union leaders, who had lodged complaint with the DLB, said that they would cooperate with the civic body chief if the board agreed to discontinue services of casual workers engaged since 2005. The CPI-M backed Independent councillor, Mr Nihar Ranjan Ghosh, said that the Congress-Trinamul-BJP board has engaged hundreds of causal workers to increase political manpower.