Omkar Dattatray
No organization or union of employees has any right to put the general public to trouble, inconvenience and suffering. Thus no employees union or trade union has an inborn right to hold people to ransom. It is unfortunate and very disturbing that the PHE casual workers are planning to stop water supply to the general public to press and force the government to resolve the long pending demand of regularization, but threatening to stop or stopping the essential service of drinking water and even water for performing other chorus to the consumers is illegal and unlawful and also against the norms of the civilized society. The demand and grievances of PHE daily-wagers are genuine and they are within their constitutional right to protest for the resolution of their problem but they cannot and should not put general public to hardship, inconvenience and trouble because this is not only illegal but is also against the public policy and even morality. Therefore the PHE casual workers should adopt other democratic means to press their demands and impress the government to accept their genuine demands including the long pending demand of regularization. There are other democratic ways of protesting and the casual workers should not resort to stoppage of drinking water supply to the people. Water supply is an essential service and it should not be interrupted by the casual employees to press their demands because they have no right to interrupt the water and drinking water supply to the people. There are other democratic methods’, ways and means to put forward their demands to the government. The norm of equal pay for equal work should be implemented in letter and spirit but the powers are lacking in providing the equal remuneration for equal work and many casual employees of different government departments are being paid daily wages which are very less and the law of equal wages for equal labor is violated with impunity by none else than the democratic government and it seems that the governments are democratic for the name sake only as the powers fail to translate the norm of equal pay for equal work into practice. In these days of skyrocketing prices the daily wagers are finding it very difficult to make both ends meet because they are paid meager wages which are not commensurate with their labour. The government should come to the rescue of the casual employees of PHE department which is now called Jal Shakti Department. The general public appreciates the deceit of the powers with the casual workers and knows well the difficulties and economic hardships faced by these employees. These workers have put in ten, twenty and even more years of the continuous service to the government and so their demand is genuine and the government should devise the mechanism of their regularization and the powers should assure them that they will be regularized in time bound manner. It is true that the patience of the casual workers of the Jal Shakti Department is waning and they are losing patience because they had put in decades of work to the department and still they are not regularized. It seems that they are fed up with the shallow assurances of the powers. The casual employees should be assured of regularization in writing so that the morale of these casual workers is increased for their increase efficiency. This is also a fact that all the workers cannot be regularized in one go and thus they should be assured of time bound regularization. The general public has been hearing about the protests of the Jal Shakti Department for the last so many decades and the people are annoyed and also irritated by the daily strikes of the casual employees of this department but they have no other way to express their grievances and demands. But, daily-wagers of PHE should not take law into their hands and stop water supply to the general public. Water supply is an essential service and the casual employees or permanent employees of PHE department have no right to disrupt the water supply to the consumers. The general public, as consumers, pay water tariffs regularly and they should be provided adequate water in these days of severe heat and the casual workers should stop to threaten and intimidate the general public and should not resort to the extreme step of stoppage of the water supply which is illegal and unconstitutional and hence undemocratic. Therefore, the casual workers should not stop the water supply to the general public as it is against the public interest. Merely threatening to stop or stopping the water supply to the people is undemocratic and the casual workers should not take this extreme step. The stoppage of the water supply to consumers will earn the wrath and displeasure of the general public and the Public will stand against the daily wagers and they will have to pay heavily for their breach of trust. PHE casual workers should employ the democratic means to put forward and press their demand and should in no circumstance resort to the undemocratic and illegal means of stopping the drinking water supply as it is against the democratic norms and also is the negation of morality and public policy. Therefore the casual employees should try to enlist the support of the civil society and should not annoy and irritate the general public as it is bound to prove counterproductive as the people will be forced to resume the water supply themselves, but this should not happen. So the casual employees should provide uninterrupted water to the general public because it is not the people who are becoming an obstacle in the fulfillment and resolution of their demands. The general public has every sympathy with the daily wagers of the PHE department and it is in the best interests of the casual workers that they should enlist the support of the general public and therefore the casual workers should not take any undemocratic step which will precipitate their grievances and compound it further.So it is in the interest of the casual employees of the PHE department that they should allow adequate water supply to the consumers and not resort to unwanted and undemocratic stoppage of the water supply to press for and protest for meeting their demands. After all it is the general public who will have to experience the hardship, inconvenience and suffering if the casual employees will resort to the stoppage the essential service of water. Therefore casual employees of the Jal Shakti Department should not take any undemocratic and anti people step which will alienate and isolate them. Therefore it is in the best interests of the casual employees that they should allow the uninterrupted water supply to the masses and their leaders should realize that the general public is not the cause of their long pending demand but instead it is the public which feels the pinch of the sufferings of the casual employees and for their meager wages. Thus, the leaders of PHE daily wagers union should adopt the pragmatic and democratic means to put forward their long pending demand of regularization and not resort to the blackmailing the government and holding the general public to ransom as this will definitely prove counterproductive and the genuine demands of the casual workers will remain unresolved. The casual workers union and its leaders should not incite the PHE workers to take the undemocratic and anti human and extreme step of holding back the water supply to the general public. The threatening to stop the water supply to the public and blackmailing the government will not lead to the resolution and fulfillment of their demands and as such the daily wagers should desist from taking the undemocratic and anti public step which instead of the fulfillment of their demands will compound the genuine demands further. Thus without wasting their time and energy the leaders of the daily wagers union should cancel their undemocratic means and methods of stopping the essential service of water supply to the general public. In short it can be opined that the daily wagers of PHE department should cancel their undemocratic and anti people way of pressing their demand and should not held the general public to ransom for fulfillment of their demands.
(The author is a Columnist and Social Activist).