Demand for regularization: Police foils protest march by ‘Jal Shakti’ daily wagers
Jammu: Police on Monday foiled a march by hundreds of Jal Shakti department daily wagers towards Raj Bhawan here to submit a memorandum in support of their various long-pending demands including their regularization, officials said.
The agitated workers assembled at Jal Shakti headquarters at B C Road in the heart of the city and came out in a procession, chanting slogans in support of their demands, the officials said.
They said the protesters were stopped by a strong posse of policemen and later senior police and civil officers including additional deputy commissioner, Jammu, Shyambir were seen motivating them to disperse.
The protesters, who had come from different districts of the Union Territory including Srinagar, made repeated attempts to move towards the Raj Bhawan according to the scheduled programme, but were prevented by the policemen who formed a human chain, the officials said.
Shyambir persuaded the protesters to hand over the memorandum of their demands to him and assured that he will take up the matter with senior officers.
After more than two-hours of persuasion, the protesters returned to their headquarters but threatened to intensify their agitation if their demands were not met.
“We have been serving the department for the last 25 to 30 years on a meagre amount. We want fulfilment of the long-pending demands like regularization, implementation of the Minimum Wages Act and release of pending salaries,” said Dinesh Sharma, one of the leaders of Public Health Engineering (PHE) employees united front.
The additional deputy commissioner said he cannot set any time-frame but “will perform my duty with responsibility and will ensure that the memorandum of demands reaches the concerned officials and a meeting between the two sides takes place.”
Over 60,000 daily wagers, casual labourers and other workers performing their duties in various departments are regularly holding protests in both Jammu and Srinagar to press for their demands.
