Ranchi, Sept. 2: The 2,000 striking secretariat employees today resolved not to return to work on September 4, a deadline set by the state government.

After a marathon meeting of the executive committee of Jharkhand Sachiwalaya Seva Sangh, authorities decided to continue with their 40-day stir. “We are not going to succumb to government pressure,” said D.N. Choudhary, the sangh general-secretary, also an under-secretary in the planning department.

G.S. Sharma, a member of the sangh executive committee, alleged that though the employees were receiving a higher pay packet than what they received in the 1990s, some higher posts were still beyond their reach.

“It’s the state administrative service officers who get placement in posts that should ideally go to secretariat assistants.”

Since 2003, the government has constituted three committees to work out a solution to the demand. “Constituting another committee shows that the bureaucracy does not wish to award promotions to the secretariat assistants,” Sharma added.

Previously, in the 1990s under the then Bihar government there was a similar 57-day strike at the secretariat.