PANAJI: Congress delegation led by Amit Patkar visited Vidyut Bhavan in Panaji, raising the issue of Electricity Department meter readers who have allegedly worked for nearly 12 years without being regularised. Department officials said the regularisation process for contractual staff who have completed over 10 years of service is already underway.
On Tuesday, police blocked the entrance to Vidyut Bhavan, preventing the Congress delegation and media from entering. The delegation questioned the delay in the regularisation of the meter readers. “When the issue is regarding Goan public who have worked for a decade at the department, we are being stopped, otherwise media is called at every Governemtn event,” said Amit Patkar.
Department officials informed the delegation that the Goa government is in the process of regularising employees across government departments who have completed 10 years of service. They said the regularisation will include Employee Provident Fund (EPF), health insurance, leave benefits and accident insurance coverage for employees in case of mishaps while on duty.
Further, Patkar gave the department a deadline until September 20 to resolve the long-pending demands of the Electricity Department meter readers. He warned that if the demands are not met by the deadline, the Congress will stage another protest at Vidyut Bhavan.
The department also assured the delegation that its representation would be forwarded to the Chief Minister.
