Hyderabad: Over 7,000 field assistants working for MNREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) await posting even two months after Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao promised their reinstatement in jobs.
The CM had made the promise in the state assembly. However, officials refuse to reinstate the field assistants by saying no order has been issued by the state government so far. These employees were sacked in February, 2020 after they went on strike.
The field assistants held protests in all the districts for two years with a plea to the government to revoke the suspension orders. Opposition parties had extended their support to the demand. It was in this context that the CM made a promise to reinstate them into the service while he was speaking in the Budget session of the assembly on March 15.
He had said he would do so on ‘humanitarian grounds’ and warned them not to resort to strikes in the future.
Field assistants had performed ‘ksheerabhishekams’' (pouring milk on the portraits of CM) to thank him for the decision in the hope that they would join duties from April 1. However, no order was issued so far. Field assistants say they would launch agitation programmes again if the government failed to issue orders immediately to take them back to their jobs from June 1. They held a meeting here on Monday.
