A group of disgruntled operators, who called off their protest against the authorities on Wednesday, announced that they would resume the strike.
Exactly a year after the launch of the Aadhaar project, there wasn’t much to celebrate on Thursday. While the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) officials in Bangalore applauded the “exceptional job” delivered by some operators during the anniversary day speech, it was a day of disappointment for another set of operators.
A group of disgruntled operators, who called off their protest against the authorities at Kanteerava Stadium late on Wednesday after the authorities promised to fulfil their demands, announced that they would resume the strike on Friday.
Apparently, the operators felt cheated. “On Wednesday evening, the officials promised in front of the media that they would pay Rs7,000 as salary and an additional Rs2800 as travel, food and accommodation allowances. Considering the fact that they had been continuously changing their stand, we asked them if they would give it in writing, to which they agreed to do it by 3pm on Thursday. Believing them, we called off our strike and some of us even resumed work on Thursday,” said Govindaraju.
“But after the media and police left, they began calling us individually and told us that if we can’t work according to their rules, we are welcome to leave.”
Realising that it was a false promise, the operators decided on Thursday to continue their strike. “They give us Rs7,000 as salary and an extra Rs450 as transportation allowance. Neither do they give accommodation nor any allowance for that,” Govindaraju added.
Another operator Sumesh Kumar said they were pulled up for speaking to the media. “We were told that the media will not be able to solve our problems and by going to the media and speaking ill of the authority, we were putting our future at risk. The 15-odd people who spoke to the media have been blacklisted and were not allowed to work today (Thursday),” he said.
“We asked them why they made all those promises, if they had no intention to fulfil them,” another operator said. “To this, they replied that our demands can’t be met and that there are new rules which need to be followed if we want to continue here,” he added.
According to the operators, the strike will continue on Friday as even their basic demands have not been met.
MN Vidyashankar, principal secretary, Centre for e-governance, said that the strike had been called off after the operators were promised that their demands will be discussed and work will resume.
(Names in the story have been changed on request)
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