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Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat chief minister and leader of newly-formed Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) Keshubhai Patel has lambasted the state government’s stand on the employees’wages,
Patel has written on his blog: “While the state government doesn’t have issues with providing benefits of Rs 33,000 crore to Tata andafewindustrialistsfrompubli
He mentioned that while the Gujarat high court has already given a judgment in favour of the fixed-pay employees, the state government has challenged the verdict in the Supreme Court. While the government showed that they were ready for negotiation, it, in fact, robbed the employees of the benefits of the Sixth Pay Commission, mediclaim and other perks. This neglect had forced the employees to resort to rallies and mass casual leave, he stated.
“GPP has included the issue of better wages for fixed pay employees in ‘Parivartan Package’ and would implement of the Sixth Pay Commission. We also assure that we would not use the state machinery to gather crowds, like the present chief minister. If the chief minister puts aside his ego and communicates with the employees, constructive aims can be achieved,” wrote Patel.
Patel has earlier taken up issues of corruption in the state administration, farmers’ woes and ‘Garib Kalyan Melas’ organized by the state government in his recent blog entries.
Former BJP leader Patel, along with many other rebel leaders from the saffron brigade, announced the formation of the new party earlier this month. He said that GPP will contest all the 182 seats in the forthcoming state assembly elections.
Patel has promised the electorate an assortment of subsidies totaling to Rs 2,700 crore if the party is elected to power. Patel said that if GPP was voted to power, he would initiate a number of people-friendly measures, including 30% reduction in value added tax (VAT) on petrol, diesel and CNG.
Gujarat EDN
TOI 27AUG2012
