Protesters hold up traffic on Panchkula-Chandigarh road
Traffic came to standstill at Panchkula-Chandigarh Road after nearly 300 protesting computer lab assistants who were on their way to Chandigarh-based Haryana CM residence were halted near Fun Republic, Manimajra, on Friday. Chandigarh Police also resorted to mild lathi charge to control the mob, which included women. Two persons were injured.
Traffic came to standstill at Panchkula-Chandigarh Road after nearly 300 protesting computer lab assistants who were on their way to Chandigarh-based Haryana CM residence were halted near Fun Republic, Manimajra, on Friday. Chandigarh Police also resorted to mild lathi charge to control the mob, which included women. Two persons were injured.
A Kalka-resident and computer lab assistant Anuradha complained that women cops of the Chandigarh Police roughened her up and pulled her by her collar.
Computer lab technicians have been protesting since June 25, with 20 of them even on hunger strike, to demand their salaries for the past 20 months.
“But no one came to listen to us,” said Surinder Peont.
A woman protestor, Harjinder Kaur, who is resident of Ambala, also got fainted and had to be hospitalised.
The protesters claimed that they were not paid since their recruitment over a year-a-half-ago.
Their march to Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s house, which begun at 12 pm, was halted midway at 1.30 pm. Special senior secretary to the CM Shadi Lal Kapoor met them and gave a written assurance that a meeting to discuss the issue with the CM had been convened on July 8 at 3:30 pm. “You will immediately get salary for 6 months. For remaining 14 months, a proposal is being prepared,” he said.
Talking to reporters, Kapoor said that the demands were genuine and the protestors would get the salaries soon.
The lab technicians were recruited through a private company, which wound up without paying them.The protesters also demand that they be brought under the state education department so that they may received their salaries directly from the state government.