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Denied Salary for Last Four Months, Contractual Staff of CM Helpline Protest, Fall Sick, Hospitalised

Newsclick Team |
The employees working for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's dream project, helpline number 1076, allegedly consumed poison in order to demand their salary in Lucknow after weeks of protest.
Denied Salary for Last Four Months, Contractual Staff of CM Helpline Protest, Fall Sick, Hospitalised

The employees working for the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath's dream project, helpline number 1076, allegedly consumed poison in order to demand their salary in Lucknow after weeks of protest. Over ten of them have been hospitalised after they fainted and vomited. Over three hundred of them have been protesting for last few days in Gomtinagar area of Lucknow to get their pending salary. They have not received their salaries since the helpline was set up in December.

According to the staff of the helpline number they did not get their salary for last four months and have been protesting to demand their salary. On Friday when they demanded their salary, they were asked to go inside a room for negotiation but were locked up from outside where they were heckled and bullied to sign on blank papers, alleged one of them working with the helpline.

The helpline was set up in December 2017 on Yogi's instructions and was hailed as an instance of his “commitment to provide swift and prominent solutions to the problems of people”. The helpline was for anyone and everyone to call and register their grievance if any work related to public department or officials was not getting done. The staff notes down their complaint and forwards it to the department concerned for appropriate action. The complaints are monitored by the Chief Ministers Office.

It is ironic yet tragic that the staff who were hired to make life of general public easier, were working without salary since the time they were hired in December last year. Their story seems be yet another chapter from the book of exploitation which the exploitative contract system has authored across the country.

Interestingly, two days ago, the chief secretary Rajeev Kumar had supervised the functioning of the helpline and taken a feedback about its working from the tele-executives.

The helpline staff are not government staff but have been provided by an NGO which claimed to have hired them on contract but allegedly has not given them any appointment letter as yet.

Most of the helpline staff NewsClick talked to, had stories of exploitation to narrate. They claimed that despite trying to convey their problems to the senior state government officials none of them paid any heed to their problem.

Initially five hundred youths and girls were hired as tele-executives before expansion of the helpline by hiring 700 more youths and girls.

Priyanka, one of the tele-executive who has been protesting, told NewsClick that she was given a month long training after which she was asked to work for the helpline without any appointment letter. “We got a month-long training. We were promised that we will soon be given appointment letter. After a month passed we pressed for the appointment letter and the salary. We were assured that we will be given both soon. Now, four months have passed but we didn’t get either the salary or the appointment letter.”

“We even informed senior government officials about our problems but no one paid heed. How are we expected to work without the basic dignity of labour? When nothing worked for us we finally decided to go public with our grievances. It is quite ironic and yet extremely tragic that people who work for public grievances redressal helpline failed to get their basic problem conveyed to the government,” she added.

Mamta, another worker of the helpline told the media that she and her colleagues felt extremely helpless after their grievances failed to invoke any response from their supervisor and even the senior government officials. The extent of helplessness was so much that some of the girls working with the Helpline tried to commit suicide by consuming poison, she alleged.

Mamta said that when they were protesting on Friday the supervisor called them in a room for negotiations. “When we sat there we were given few blank papers to sign. When we refused to sign we were bullied. They offered us coffee. Many who had the coffee fell ill and vomited. Many people had to be admitted to Lohia hospital,” she alleged.

Sahiba another colleague of Mamta alleged that some of the protesting staff of the helpline were beaten and locked in a room in Cybertower office in Vibhutikhand in Gomtinagar in Lucknow.

Despite the project helpline 1076 being Yogi Adityanath’s “dream project”, instead of hiring the employees on the government payroll, he chose the contractual system which is known for its exploitation of the labour force, Sahiba criticised.

Lucknow police told NewsClick that some of the protesting staff had allegedly eaten a substance.

Satendra Rai, the Station house office of Vibhutikhand police station told NewsClick, “One of the protesting employees called police on Friday morning complaining that over 100 employees of the helpline have been locked in a room. She also claimed that some of them had eaten some substance. We reached on the spot and opened the room gate.”

“We are examining the CCTV footage to ascertain what exactly happened. One of them Shalu Yadav had fainted. Shama, Shalini and Shivani had vomited. The police took them to RML hospital,” added Rai.

Interestingly, the Additional city magistrate Amit Kumar told the media that not all of the employees were protesting. He said that only 150 of the helpline staff were protesting and rest of them working as usual.

The project head of the call centre Dhruv Mishra rejected the allegation of the protesting staff and said that salaries of the employees had been deposited on March 8.

“It is not true that the helpline staff had not gotten their salaries. The salary had been deposited on March 8. We have 1,200 employees working in three shifts. Some of them had technical issues related to their bank,” Mishra said.

Police said that they are yet to receive the medical report of the admitted helpline staff from the hospital.

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