Over 12,000 contractual MGNREGA employees, who were on strike for the last two months for regularization of service, on Saturday resigned en masse in Chhattisgarh.

The move came after the services of 21 assistant project officers (APOs) of MGNREGA were terminated by the state government on Friday.

The employees of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme are protesting since April for various demands, including regularization of service and better pay, said Tikamchand Kaushik, vice president of Chhattisgarh MGNREGA Karamchari Mahasangh.

“On Friday evening, the state government suddenly terminated the service of 21 APOs. In protest against the decision and support of our demand, all 12,371 employees, including 9000 rojgar sahayak (employment assistant) tendered mass resignation,” he said.

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“The ruling Congress, in its 2018 poll manifesto, had promised to regularise services of contractual workers but no steps have been taken in this direction so far. We just want job security as we have given a better part of our life to this service,” said Kaushik, who works as technical assistant under scheme.

Amid the protest, the state government had last month announced that the honorarium of employment assistants working under MGNREGA would be hiked to Rs 9,540 from Rs 5,000.

A decision on the demands related to service conditions of MGNREGA employees will be taken after getting the report of a committee set up by the government in this regard, an official release had informed.

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