Village Organisation Assistants stage protest demanding withdrawal of circular to restrict their services in Andhra Pradesh
The Hindu
VOAs in Visakhapatnam protested, demanding withdrawal of a circular restricting their services.
Village Organisation Assistants (VOAs), owing allegiance to the AP Velugu VOA (Animators) Employees Union (CITU), staged a protest here on Tuesday demanding withdrawal of the circular, which they allege, was issued for restricting their services.
The VOAs, as part of the statewide agitation on October 10 and 11, gathered in large numbers at the Gandhi statue, near GVMC, and demanded cancellation of the circular, which was issued to terminate their services, on completion of 45 years of age.
Union president P. Mani alleged that the merger of village organisations was depriving them of their employment. She alleged that the division of village organisations was done by the SERP officials. She demanded a halt to mergers and redeployment of VOAs and prevention of political interference in this regard.
The other demands include implementation of HR policy, provision of ₹10 lakh as group insurance, provision of 5 G mobiles by the government to enable VOAs for their app work and stopping the practice of forcing DWCRA women to buy vegetables, seeds and livestock from the Mahila Marts.
Meanwhile, CPI(M) Anakapalli district committee secretary K. Lokanadham extended support to the two-day agitation by VOAs. Demanding cancellation of the circular issued for the restriction of services of VOAs, he said that they were playing a key role in taking the welfare schemes of the government to the people. Though they were improving the image of the government through their services in the rural areas, they were not being paid minimum wages, he alleged.
Mr. Lokanadham recalled that Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had promised to hike the salaries of VOAs to ₹10,000 has failed to do so till date. He said that the State government should respond to the demands of the VOA s immediately and solve them without further delay.
he Tamil Nadu Government will take appropriate decision to protect the welfare and livelihood of Manjolai tea estate workers as Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation, which is managing the tea gardens for the past 90-odd years, is about to wind up its operations in near future, Speaker M. Appavu has said.