Gopal Sharma
SRINAGAR/ JAMMU, Oct 2: Police today foiled the torch-light protest march of the State Government employees toward Chief Minister’s residence at Srinagar and Jammu and arrested 13 employees including senior JCC leaders Abdul Qayoom Wani and Mohd Gafoor Dar.
Joint Consultative Committee (JCC), an amalgam of several employees’ unions had called for a five -day strike programme to press for the implementation of the agreement signed between their leaders and the Government.
The agitating employees appeared at the Municipal Park on Wednesday evening carrying torches and shouting anti-Government slogans.
The employees tried to march towards Gupkar Road, but heavy deployment of police intercepted them, used batons and arrested several employees’ leaders including Employees Joint Action Committee, president Abdul Qayoom Wani.
Other leaders who were arrested included Nusrat Ahmad Beg, Sajad Ahmad Parry, Ishaq Ganie, Shafi Rather, Farooq Sofi and Basher Bhat, Imtiyaz Ahmad, Shahid Ali, Nasir Wani and Syed Iqbal.
A group of employees also held a torch protest at Press Enclave here and fled immediately from the spot to evade the police arrest.
In Jammu, three employees leaders including Mohd Gafoor Dar, S Vikramjeet Singh from Youth Services and Sports Employees Union and Darshan Singh from PSU Employees Union were arrested when the employees under the banner of JCC assembled near Dogra Hall and started ‘candle light’ protest march towards Chief Minister’s residence on Wazarat Road.
As the agitating employees, holding candles in hands reached near Civil Secretariat, a police contingent suddenly appeared at the site and they arrested senior JCC leader Mohd Gafoor Dar and two others namely Vikramjeet Singh and Darshan Singh. There were nearly 60 odd employees taking the protest march on Secretariat Road at around 7.30 pm. All other employees escaped towards Dogra Hall Mohalla and Parade Ground.
The police foiled their march towards CM’s residence.
The JCC leadership had earlier decided to start candle light march from the Press Club near Exhibition Ground. As they noticed huge police contingent already waiting there for action, they decided to change the venue to give slip to the police team waiting there. Mr Dar along with others reached at Dogra Hall. Some of the employees had already reached at the Exhibition Ground and got scattered apprehending their arrest.
Senior JCC leaders Kulwant Singh, Amrik Singh, Rajinder Kumar and Ganesh Khajuria condemned the suppressive attitude of the Government and alleged that NC led Government was trying to gag the voice of the democratically and peacefully agitating employees of the State. They said that Government has back tracked its commitment and now was using force on them which is most unfortunate. They demanded immediate release of the arrested JCC leaders.
Earlier, in Srinagar, employees’ leaders held a meeting under JCC president Abdul Qayoom Wani to condemn the detention of employees and use of police force on them.
“Arresting and shifting of employees’ leaders to Central Jail is a mere frustration of the Government and it can’t discourage us for demanding our rights,” Wani said.
Wani said to foil their scheduled march, police had raided the houses of some top JCC leaders during the night and harassed their families mentally.
“Continuous raids were conducted on the office and the residential house of senior JCC leaders just to sabotage the program but the employees leaders despite harassment of the Government, managed to reach the place and register their protest,” he said.
Yesterday, the police had detained some of the leaders including Haji Ashraf Bhat, Azhar Majrooh, Manzoor Ahmad Bhat and lodged them in different police stations in Tral, Lal Bazar, Qamarwari and Shaheed Gunj and were shifted to Central jail, Srinagar.
As per the protest calendar, the employees took out a peaceful torch march from Municipal Park to the Chief Minister’s residence on after evening prayer. However, JCC has changed the date of ‘Assembly Gherao’ program from October 3 to 5 after the Government announced October 3 as the State holiday.
Wani said, “As per the announcement, a complete lock out will be observed in all Government and Public Sector Undertakings offices on October 4 and 5.” He added that on Saturday thousands of Government employees would be protesting to press for their demands.
Even the State Government issued a circular this week warning the agitating employees that the strikes would entail strict action including imposing no work no pay rule, besides other punitive measures.
Wani said that they would continue their protest program and no threat or warning from Government would deter their movement. “We are fighting for our rights. We have seen such warnings from Government in past as well. If Government failed to fulfill our demands, we will intensify our protest program,” the JCC leader warned.
The agitating employees are demanding increase in the retirement age from 58 year to 60 years, regularization of daily wagers and contractual workers besides removal of pay anomalies.
The work in Government offices across Kashmir remained affected as the employees stayed away from work. Employees working in emergency services like hospitals and examination duty were exempted from the strike.
Meanwhile, the Government today said that the employees should shun confrontational attitude and join talks.
Minister for Medical Education Taj Mohi-ud-Din, who is also the member of Cabinet sub-committee dealing with employee demands, told media that Government can go to any extent to crush the agitation.
“But this Government does not want any confrontation with its own employees. We want all the issues to be sorted out through talks. We had sought time from the employees’ unions for only one issue which is the enhancement in retirement age, but the employees have resorted to illegal means, portraying Government’s flexible attitude in a bad taste. This is unacceptable to the Government.”
The Minister said the Chief Secretary has asked all the district administrations to take necessary action against employees who don’t join their duties and resort to protest.
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