Daily wagers’ issue: HC tells NVDA vice-chairman to be present in court in Indore

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Moved by a contempt petition on the issue of daily wagers, Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday ordered for withholding salary of an executive engineer of Narmada Valley Development Authority (NVDA) and asked vice-chairman SN Mishra and deputy secretary Varsha Solanki to be present personally in court during the next hearing.

While ordering to stop the salary of the executive engineer, the court remarked that the salary of the officers who do not see the pain of the poor employees should be withheld.

Daily wagers of NVDA were not given the benefits of fifth and sixth pay scales despite the High Court's order. When the employees filed a contempt petition, the government did not even consider it necessary to reply to it.

To this, the HC ordered NVDA vice-chairman and deputy secretary Varsha Solanki to appear in person before the court.

It is noteworthy that Omprakash and Babusingh, class IV daily wage employees of NVDA, had filed a contempt petition against NVDA in the High Court through Advocate Manish Yadav.

Yadav said that in 2019-10, the court had ordered to give the benefit of fifth and sixth pay scales to daily wage employees of NVDA. Despite this, when the employees did not get the benefits, a contempt petition was filed.

In this too, there is no response from NVDA. The government had approached the Supreme Court in this matter but it did not get a decision in its favour, as yet. On Tuesday, the court expressed displeasure over the attitude of the government. The next hearing in the matter will be on May 18.