Twenty-four hours after protesting with state Congress chief Raj Babbar against summary removal and snapping of powerlines of their homes on the party office campus, now Congress office staff has threatened to move court if the party adopts double standards in removing them from their job.
“Ashok Kumar, an employee, has attained 60 years of age but is still working with the UPCC even as a cut-off age has been set for forcible retirement,” cited a letter drafted by the staff who were compulsarily retired on August 31 last.
The agitated ex-employees of Congress office said that Kumar, as per educational certificates submitted with the UPCC, was born on June 18, 1958, thereby he has completed 60 years in June this year. “A list was also prepared by UPCC in which Kumar’s name was mentioned for retirement but since he is close to a prominent leader, while 15 staff were forcibly retired on August 31, Kumar was spared,” a sacked staffer complained.
The employees even claimed that the aforesaid leader was also entrusted with more powers to Kumar than even senior ministerial staff. They threatened that if the UPCC chief did not remove Kumar immediately, they would move court and challenge their forcible retirement on the ground of having completed 60 years of age. Some of them have already filed an application in the labour court against Babbar’s decision.
On August 31, Babbar forcibly retired 15 staffers (including one who died a fortnight before the order). He said that as per service rules, employees had to retire as they have attained 60 years of age.
The staffers retired included additional permanent secretary KP Singh (78), KK Awasthi (66), permanent secretary Sajjad Hassan (77), assistant permanent secretary Vijay Dwivedi (62), Mritunjay Srivastava, Trilok Singh, office superintendent Jagdish Singh Bisht, clerk Devaki Nandan, Anant Ram Upadhaya and five Class IV staff Ram Chander ‘Chotu’, Ramesh Bajpai, Kallu (driver), Babu Lal and Deep Chandra. The name of Rekha Bhargawa was also on the list but she died before the order came out.
Just a day before removing the staff, Babbar also terminated the services of three others —- clerk Rana Pratap Singh, electrician Shiv Shankar and Class IV staff Pramod Shukla for their alleged indulgence in illegal activities and dereliction of duty.
Besides, a fortnight later, Babbar gave marching orders to 10 drivers working in the UPCC office for the last several decades. The reason offered was that the UPCC presently had just five vehicles, hence there was no room for extra drivers.
