Port Blair, March 17: The INTUC President, Shri Kuldeep Rai Sharma had met the Lt. Governor alongwith a delegation of daily wage/contract workers of Directorate of Transport and briefed him of the need to increase the number of posts in the Directorate.

Sharma said that at present the sanctioned strength of Bus drivers and Conductors are 224 with 191 workshop staffs to carry out the operation and maintenance of buses. He stated that though the number of buses and routes got substantially increased, the augmentation of man power in terms of operational and Technical staff did not happen to commensurate the infrastructural expansion. To cope up with the increased work load and providing efficient and effective transportation service, the Directorate has been engaging the manpower on daily wages or contract basis in absence of regular posts.  Considering the requirement for augmentation of man power, the AN Administration has sent proposal to Govt of India for creation of 628 posts of various categories and it is understood that the proposal is under the consideration of Central Govt.

Accordingly Sharma requested the Administrator that these 628 posts may be filled in with the present 400 daily wage/contract workers engaged in the Directorate of transport, State Transport Authority and Regional transport office, as out of these workers, more than 300 have completed more than 7 years of continuous service and rest have completed 240 days of continuous engagement in a year.

Advocating for the workers, he also stated that appreciable number of vacancies has arisen in the directorate at the entry level posts due to retirement, promotion, death. He therefore requested that on the basis of seniority of these DRMs/contract workers, their services may be regularized against the appropriate category of vacant posts. Sharma has also requested for 1/30th of the pay at the minimum of relevant pay scale plus DA for work of 8 hours a day may be considered for the remaining Daily wage workers etc.