Lucknow:
With the deadlock continuing in talks between the Uttar Pradesh government and various employee unions, the indefinite strike by the state staff entered fifth day on Saturday.
Leader of 'Rajya Karamchari Adhikaar Manch', Hari Kishore Tiwari said that they are continuing with the strike as the state government has taken no fresh initiative to break the logjam.
"A decision has also been taken to include employees of the Health department too in a phased manner in the strike from November 18," Tiwari said.
Employees of the Optometric department would be joining the strike from November 18 and if demands are not met by then, Hospitals and Health Education officers would also join the strike from November 19, he said adding gradually more department of health sectors would join.
Around 16 lakh state government employees are presently on strike, Tiwari said.
Their main demands include removal of anomalies in salary and allowances, doing away with assured promotion or promotion scale and pension benefits.
The unions decided to take recourse to strike after the failure of several rounds of talks with government.
A total of 18 lakh employees are on UP government payrolls of which around 60 per cent are estimated to be taking part in the strike.
