Goa government employees across the board must be anxiously waiting to receive their new pay packets as per the 7th pay commission recommendations. But this widow from Borda-Fatorda, who has spent cleaning the government offices and cleaning the toilets, for most part of her life, has no reason to be happy.
MARGAO
Hailing from the Scheduled Tribe community and a mother of five daughters, Luizinha Vaz must have spent 20 years of her entire life in sweeping offices and cleaning the toilets of the office of Salcete Sub-Registrar and now the District Registrar. Sadly, what she has got in return for her hard work over the years was just `550 monthly remuneration. Her services have been engaged by the Salcete Sub-Registrar office over 20 years ago for a paltry sum of `200 when the office was functioning from the Margao Municipal Council. And, she continued to serve the Sub-Registrar office even after the office was shifted to the Osia commercial complex in the SGPDA market.
Incidentally, the salaries of the officers and staff of the Sub-Registrar office must have increased manifold during the last two decades, but this widow had to contend with the monthly remuneration of `550 for no fault of her. What has left Luizinha fuming and let down by the government is the bitter fact that her remuneration has been cut down by nearly half since the last two months. “I do not know why they are now paying me only Rs 200 per month. I have been diligent in executing my work since I began sweeping the office around 20 years ago,” Luizinha told The Goan in the presence of social activist Camilo Barretto.
Questions are being raised as to why officials of the Sub Registrar office never bothered to regularise her services and offer her a decent remuneration. When The Goan called up incumbent Salcete Sub-Registrar Chandrakant Pissurlekar, who had earlier worked in Salcete when the office was functioning from the Margao Municipal Council, he conceded that Luizinha was engaged as a sweeper before his posting in Salcete. “She was hard working and cleaned the floors and the toilets. I do not know why her services were never regularised,” he said.
State Registrar, R Borco promised to inquire into the episode, wondering how come the Sub Registrar’s office had engaged the services of a sweeper without offering her the salary. Asked about the options available to Luizinha now since she has turned 60 and has no means to sustain herself, Borco said, “Let the woman make a petition to the government explaining the circumstances she had been working in the office since the last
20 years.”
When The Goan called up the district Registrar, Pednekar to shed light on the employment of Luizinha in her office as a sweeper, he confirmed that the woman had been engaged for sweeping at a monthly remuneration of Rs 550. “I had moved a proposal to the government to increase the remuneration amount to Rs 800 a month. Let us wait and see,” he said.
Luizinha, however, said that she has now grown old and the government should at least provide a job to one of her daughters on compassionate grounds. “I would really look for the day when the government compensates me for my services all these years. If not, let the government provide a job to one of my daughters,” she pleaded.
Social activist Camilo Barretto pointed out that the government seems to have done grave injustice to Luizinha and has violated her human rights by not compensating her for her services. “This is a example of violation of Luizinha’s human rights. Let the government find out why her services were not regularised or why she was not given a decent wage,” Camilo said.
