Some 350 service staff of Jharkhand State Sports Promotion Society (JSSPS), that trains 200 youngsters in sports academies here, on Saturday staged a mega 10-hour demonstration to protest against not getting paid since January this year.
Sweepers and security guards at the entrance of Birsa Munda athletics stadium inside the mega sports complex at Hotwar, said they had protested on the issue on April 5, but to no avail.
Seema Tirkey, representing 130 sweepers, said they were supposed to get a meagre Rs 267 per day which had been withheld since January this year. “We have families, responsibilities. In this situation, how can we survive,” she said.
Umesh Kumar, representing 155 security guards, said it was getting impossible to make ends meet. “If a householder does not get paid for six months, you can imagine the condition of dependents,” he said. He added, “We are hearing (rumours) that when we do get our salaries, it would be reduced from Rs 11,425 per month to Rs 8,800 only.”
Member (security) of the JSSPS Captain Manish Raj said demonstrating employees were pacified and “made to understand the situation”. “Due to general elections, accounting work got delayed and staff did not get their salaries, but they will get paid very soon,” he claimed. On the fears of security guards about a salary deduction, he said it might happen if cash, sanctioned under the security head, was less than before, but “something will also be done in this front”.
Contacted, chief executive officer of JSSPN Jitendra Tiwari parried a reply to the salary question, saying he was “busy in a meeting”.
A JSSPS official, who did not come on quote as he is not authorised to speak to the media, said over Rs 5 crore was annually required to pay staff. Central Coalfields and state sports department jointly release this sum. “Funds have been sanctioned by both. But for their release, documentation needs to be up to date. This includes production of utilisation certificates of funds of the previous year, written approval from the government to transfer funds in the JSSPS account, other documents,” he said, adding “paperwork delays led to delays in release of money”.
JSSPS was formed in 2015 under the Societies Registration Act 1860 after state sports department and CCL signed an MoU to autonomously run academies and a sports university in Jharkhand. Recently, its cadet Florence Barla won 400 m gold at an invitational meet in Kazakhstan.
