Goa Municipal Employees Association says ‘no’
the goan I network
MAPUSA
In a significant decision, the Mapusa Municipal Council (MMC) on Friday gave the go-ahead to the proposal of constituting a common cadre for municipal employees.
The entire council unanimously gave its nod to the resolution moved by MMC Chairperson, Rohan Kavlekar, for the constitution of common cadre among the municipal employees while making an exception in the case of drivers and supervisors.
“All drivers, supervisors and workers-cum-supervisors will be kept out from the common cadre as they have to be present in the municipal council early in the morning. A driver from Canacona will not be able to come to Mapusa very early in the morning and that is why we have kept this category of staff out of the common cadre,” Kavlekar said.
MMC became the first council to pass a resolution for common cadre in the State.
The issue of common cadre for municipal employees was hanging fire for a
very long time due to its opposition from the municipal employees.
Reacting on the issue, Goa Municipal Employees Association (GMEA), President, Keshav Prabhu said the association opposed the idea of common cadre for municipalities. “We strongly oppose common cadre without proper application of mind. It’s unscientific…,” said Prabhu.
He said common cadre was introduced for accountants and engineering staff of the municipal councils and they were still suffering as no proper rules were framed at that time. He further said the council would lose power to recruit staff, as Director of Municipal Administration will be the authority to appoint staff in the regime of common cadre.
The GMEA president said the appointment letter of a municipal employee clearly stated that he has to work at his place of appointment.
“There will be harassment of staff in the common cadre regime,” Prabhu said and called for a debate on the issue. He also said there was no common cadre for municipalities all over India.
In another decision, the council decided to retain the post of accounts-cum-administrative officer and accordingly moved a resolution requesting the government ACAO’s post permanent in the council.
“Although MMC is not a ‘A’ category council, the work and population in the city has increased tremendously. The present ACAO has put in a lot of effort to streamline the administration and to help in recovering revenue for the council,” Kavlekar said.
Former chairperson, Sandip Falari urged the council to request the government to create the post on regular basis.
