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Roadways staff insist on Naresh?s ouster
UTTAR PRADESH State Road Transport Corporation employees on Monday stuck to their demand for dismissal of Transport Minister Naresh Agrawal for sacking a large number of their colleagues who participated in a strike on July 11.
UTTAR PRADESH State Road Transport Corporation employees on Monday stuck to their demand for dismissal of Transport Minister Naresh Agrawal for sacking a large number of their colleagues who participated in a strike on July 11.
Staging a demonstration at the district headquarters, they demanded withdrawal of termination orders and quashing of chargesheets against the striking employees.
They handed over a charter of their demands to a representative of the district magistrate. It is to be forwarded to the chief minister.
Union leaders said Agrawal had taken an undemocratic step to crush the peaceful agitation. They alleged the minister was involved in gross irregularities in buying Shatabdi buses from a Chandigarh-based company.
“The chief minister should remove the minister from the State Cabinet,” they said and added that a high-level inquiry should be set up into the “scandal”.
They also stuck to their initial demand of merger of 50 percent dearness allowance with their basic salaries and increase in retirement age from 58 to 60 years.
Uttar Pradesh Roadways Employees’ Union regional president Awdhesh Pandey and others warned the employees would stage an indefinite chakka-jam from Tuesday midnight if the State Government did not meet their demands.
A large number of striking roadways employees were either sacked or suspended in Varanasi region. Official sources said 84 ad hoc Roadways employees and 83 regular employees of the Varanasi region were removed.
