Nearly half a dozen daily wagers of the jal shakti department (also called public health engineering (PHE)) were lathicharged and several others were roughed up by police at Indira Chowk while they were on their way to Raj Bhawan during a protest over their demand for regularisation.
Hundreds of daily wagers, under the banner of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Employee’s United Front, had assembled on Monday morning at the office of the PHE chief engineer seeking regularisation and release of their pending wages.
Then, while they were marching towards Raj Bhawan, police intercepted them at Indira Chowk where tempers ran high. Infuriated over police blockade, the daily wagers shouted slogans against the BJP and J&K administration for not regularising their services.
One of the protesters Rakesh Kumar, said, “The BJP government has betrayed us and if they fail to fulfil our demands in the next five to six days, then we will stop supplying water across the region.”
Over 60,000 daily wagers, casual labourers and other workers have been working with PHE and several other departments on a paltry sum of ₹6,750 per month, which too has not been released for several months.
A protestor said that for the past 28 years, they have only been used as vote banks by the successive regimes, whether it was PDP, NC and Congress.
{{/usCountry}}A protestor said that for the past 28 years, they have only been used as vote banks by the successive regimes, whether it was PDP, NC and Congress.
{{/usCountry}}They recalled that in 2014, BJP had promised that their services will be regularised, but has failed to fulfil it.
On February 21, police had resorted to a mild baton-charge on hundreds of agitating daily-wager employees outside the residence of union minister Jitendra Singh’s residence here.
Congress condemned lathi-charge on daily wagers, Seeks their regularisation
Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee has strongly condemned the police lathi-charge over the daily wage workers, who were protesting for their genuine demands in a peaceful manner.
In a statement, JKPCC president Ghulam Ahmed Mir besides working president Raman Bhalla, vice-president Mula Ram, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, TS Bajwa (former MP), Balwan Singh, Manmohan Singh and others have strongly condemned the actions of the police which they allege were taken on the directions of government.