Wednesday, 07 June 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
On the initiative of the cabinet minister Ganesh Joshi the Soldier Welfare department has initiated the process to increase the stipend of the employees of the Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL). The salary increase will benefit more than 24,000 employees working in different departments of Uttarakhand government. The department is learnt to have directed the management of the UPNL to prepare a proposal in this regard. The proposal would be presented in the meeting of the State cabinet for approval. When contacted the Sainik Kalyan secretary Deependra Chuadhary told this correspondent that deliberations are going on to raise the wages of the workers under the UPNL. He said that the allowances of the UPNL workers have not been raised since 2020.
The employees working under the contract of UPNL have been demanding a hike in wages for a long time. They point out that they performed well in the adverse conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic and the government should now raise their wages. The association of UPNL workers also want their wages to be revised every six months and the State government to remove the 11 month contract system which they have to enter with UPNL. The association demands that they should be given the benefit of the golden cards similar to the State government employees.
The newly appointed managing director of UPNL brigadier (retd) JNS Bisht told The Pioneer that the agency has not received any plan to hike the wages of the workers.
It is pertinent to mention here that UPNL is an agency which provides workers under all four categories (unskilled, semi skilled, skilled and highly skilled) to different departments of the State government.
An unskilled worker receives a monthly stipend of Rs 15,059, semi-skilled worker gets Rs 17,217, skilled worker gets Rs 19,036 and highly skilled worker receives a monthly stipend of Rs 21,095. The UPNL levies a surcharge of 2.5 per cent on the stipend of these workers.
