Cuttack: Diploma Engineers working in various departments of the Odisha Government have threatened to launch a pen down strike in February, under the banner of Orissa Diploma Engineer’s Service Association (ODESA), if their demands are not met.
This was decided at a protest meeting held today at the official headquarters of ODESA in Cuttack. The Diploma Engineers alleged that even after regularly apprising the State government about their issues, nothing fruitful has come out of it.
An 8-point charter of demands was prepared in the meeting that includes, promotion percentage of Diploma Engineers should be increased from 33 to 50 percent in case of promotion to the rank of Assistant Executive Engineer and increase in the initial grade pay of Junior Engineers to Rs 4600, among others.
ODESA has planned to launch a pen down strike if the demands are not met.
"The Diploma Engineers are neglected in case of promotion. We are demanding to increase the current 30 percent promotion quota to 50 percent. We will organise a mass rally in Bhubaneswar in the third week of February and take a decision to observe complete pen-down strike," said ODESA's General Secretary Narendra Kumar Nayak.