Employees agitate in front of Mada office in Dhanbad on Monday. Picture by Gautam Dey

Seven Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada) employees, supported “informally” by 50 others, started a three-day relay dharna in Dhanbad on Monday, reiterating demands for better pay and voicing ire over provisions in the proposed merger of Mada with Dhanbad Municipal Corporation.

The agitators , under the banner of Pradhikar Karmchari Sangharsh Samanvya Samiti, assembled in front of the civic body’s main gate with an 11-point charter of demands. It included the implementation of fifth and sixth pay commission recommendations, clearance of salary arrears, pension for retired employees and promotions.

They also termed “erroneous” the move to merge Mada with Dhanbad Municipal Corporation (DMC), as per Jharkhand Municipality Act, 2011, without guaranteeing jobs of all employees.

“We are against certain provisions of Jharkhand Municipality Act, 2011, that allow the merger of Mada with DMC without job guarantees,” said samiti convener Devendra Nath Dubey.

He trounced the provision of the Act that called for a panel to look into the appointment details of employees of Mada, the old civic body.

“It is insulting for a person who has served the civic body for 30 years to have his credentials checked,” said samiti secretary Shyam Narayan Dubey.

Dubey added that they would ask Mada MD Alok Trivedi to not hand over lists of employees as well as of assets owned by the civic body to the urban development department till the administration addressed their grievances.

Working president of the samiti Visheshwar Mahto also said that the protesters were not going to be “fooled”.

“Our agitation is being supported by Dhanbad MLA Mannan Mullick, Bagodar MLA Vinod Singh and Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee. We will only retract our stand only if the district administration decides to change,” he said.

Protesters threatened to go an indefinite strike from April 26 if their demands were not met. A meeting has been scheduled on the issue with Dhanbad deputy commissioner Sunil Kumar Burnwal on Tuesday.