Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Rohit Pawar, a member of the faction led by Sharad Pawar, along with fellow party leaders sat on hunger strike in the city on Wednesday. Their protest was in response to the Maharashtra government's choice to hire personnel on a contractual basis for various positions within its departments.
Pawar, who represents the Karjat-Jamkhed assembly constituency in neighbouring Ahmednagar district, NCP's Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap (Sharad Pawar faction) and other leaders in the city took part in the hunger strike at Mahatma Phule Wada in Ganj Peth area. We are holding a one-day symbolic hunger strike here to protest the contractual recruitment being done by the state government in its various departments, Pawar said.
Through this recruitment drive, more than 75,000 posts will be filled and the candidates will be recruited on lower wages. So after the deduction of their Provident Fund (PF), they will get a meagre salary. In this process of contractual recruitment, the contractor (who will provide the manpower) will get richer, he alleged.
NCP leaders have additionally called for the enactment of a law similar to the one introduced by the Rajasthan government to address instances of exam paper leaks. In connection with the purported irregularities in the recruitment of talathis, Pawar emphasized that if any misconduct has occurred, an independent committee should be established to conduct a thorough investigation.