AIZAWL, Nov 22 - Employees of Mizoram Government today began a two-day pen down strike to put pressure on their demand for implementation of 7th Pay Commission�s recommendations.
Federation of Mizoram Employees and Workers�, an umbrella organisation of Government employees, which called for the strike, said essential workers for public services like electricity, water, medical, etc., are exempted from the strike.
Government employees attended office without working. The union said it would resort to a series of strikes to have their demands fulfilled by the State Government.
Last month, Mizoram Government constituted a committee to study the 7th Pay Commission recommendations and to determine if it could be implemented.
Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla had earlier said that the State Government would not be able to implement the Central Pay Commission�s recommendations for its employees in near future.
�The financial health of the Government would not allow implementation of the Pay Commission recommendations unless additional financial assistance is received from Centre,� Lal Thanhawla had said.
However, the last Cabinet meeting decided to form a committee to study the 7th Pay Commission�s recommendations.
Chief Secretary Lalmalsawma said that the pay committee was formed by the Government following the decision of the meeting of the Council of Ministers held on October 25 last.
The panel is headed by State Planning Commission Vice Chairman H Liansailova and has Agriculture Minister KS Thanga and Finance Secretary Lalthansanga as its two members.
The committee would examine if the pay scale recommended by 7th Central Pay Commission could be implemented for employees of Government of Mizoram.
It would also determine the methods to be applied for fixation of initial pay of employees of the State Government.
The 42,457 regular State Government employees would require an additional allocation of Rs 563 crore annually if the recommendations were implemented, State Finance department officials said.
Chief Secretary Lalmalsawma said that at present, 36-37 per cent of the total State annual budget is used for paying the salaries of the State Government employees.