Cooperative officers plan to move court

PATNA: The failure of the state government to implement the recommendations of Justice Aftab Alam (Patna High Court) recommendations for removal of anomalies in the revised payscales, the Bihar Cooperative Extension Officers'' Association is contemplating to either come on the streets or go to the court.
After the 116-day long strike by association members, an agreement was reached between the association and the state government on May 7, 1999, in which it was decided to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of a sitting judge of the Patna High Court which had to submit its report to the state government within three months on pay anomalies.The state government had to implement the payscales as recommended by the committee within a month. It was also decided that the recommendations of the committee will be acceptable to both the parties.
A fitment appellate committee under Justice Alam was constituted, which directed all the cadres through advertisements to submit their memoranda. Accordingly association-s/federations submitted their memoranda. After review of the memoranda and hearing on them, Justice Alam submitted his report to the state government in November, 2000.
According to association general secretary Raj Kishore Singh, the fitment appellate committee has identified anomalies in the revised basic payscales of 26 service cadres of the state and recommended for upgradation of their payscales. Despite demonstrations, dharna, satyagrah, telegram-campaign and other agitational courses, these 26 service cadres failed to get the Aftab Alam Committee recommendations implemented.
Even MLA Ramnath Thakur raised the issue through a question in the state assembly on March 10 and the state government assured the House to implement the recommendations immediately. A number of MPs and MLAs also wrote letters to chief minister Rabri Devi in March to implement the recommendations before implementing Assured Career Promotion (ACP) scheme for her employees. In June the state government implemented ACP scheme without removing the pay anomalies, Singh said.