Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 19: Voluntarily retired employees of J&K State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC), held strong protest demonstration against the Transport Department and management of SRTC for not addressing their pending issues.
A large number of retirees from SRTC under the banners of All J&K SRTC Volunteer Retired Employees Association led by Dev Raj Bali assembled at Exhibition Ground near Press Club and held protest demonstration. They were raising slogans in support of their demands and against the SRTC Management, Finance and Transport Departments.
Mr Bali and several other speakers strongly criticised the higher authorities for ignoring the pending issues of the VRS given employees. They said nearly 126 slabs of COLA with effect from January 2006 and pending arrears since 1999 area were still unpaid. The Sixth Pay Commission benefit and pending arrears have been denied to these nearly 742 VRS given workers which is highly unjustified.
Unfortunately the Government is sleeping over the issues like COLA arrears, leave salary, gratuity/ ex-gratia grant etc. This total amount of nearly Rs 30 lakh has been denied to the VRS/GHS workers, which is lying with the Finance Department. They said that despite appeal to the Chief Minister, Finance and Transport Ministers nothing has been done in this regard. They warned to intensify their agitation.
Prominent among others included Surinder Singh, Kulbir Singh, J D Singh, B V Sharma, Prem Nath, Ehsan Elahi, Surjit Singh and Sain Mohammed.