*Another call for strike on May 8, 9
Fayaz Bukhari/Gopal Sharma
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Apr 17:Police used water cannons and charged batons to disperse thousands of State Government employees, who were protesting against the non-fulfillment of the agreement which they arrived at with the Government last year.
Scores of employees mostly their leaders were detained by police and lodged at several police stations across the Srinagar city. The detainees include several Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC) leaders like Khursheed Aalam, Abdul Qayoom Wani and Farooq Ahmad Trali.
Work in State Government offices was affected as the Government employees stayed away from work and staged demonstrations across the Kashmir valley to press their demand.
Thousands of Government employees assembled near Khalisa School near Exhibition in the morning. EJAC leader Abdul Qayoom Wani led hundreds of the Government employees towards Khalisa School from Saraibala, Khursheed Aalam from CAPAD, Shaheed Gunj, Farooq Ahmad Trali from Lal Mandi.
The employees started their march towards Divisional Commissioner’s office in Tankipora area of Srinagar at around 12 noon but heavy deployment of the police stopped the employees from marching ahead towards the Divisional Commissioner’s office when they reached Jehangir Chowk.
Police charged batons and used water cannons to disperse the employees. The chaos and confusion continued for around two hours during which traffic remained suspended and huge traffic jams were witnessed in several parts of the Civil lines area.
Police detained scores of the employee leaders after which police succeeded in quelling the protest demonstration of the employees.
The EJAC (Q) president Abdul Qayoom Wani told Excelsior that around 30,000 State Government employees will gherao the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar if the employees’ demands are not fulfilled. He called for Government employee strike on May 8 and 9.
Wani condemned the use of force by Government on the peaceful protesting employees. He said that if the Government continued its pressure tactics against the employees it will have serious consequences.
Senior EJAC leader and general secretary of the ITI employees Union, Mohammad Abbas, said that as per the agreement, the Government had promised regularization of the adhoc, contractor and consolidated employees working in various departments and so far only 2500 have been regularized while 4000 are still waiting for it.
On the enhancement of the retirement age of the Government employees, Abbas said that if the Government makes immediate recruitment against the retiring employees and stops re-employment of retired bureaucrats, then Government employees may consider their demand of enhancement of retirement age.
Abbas said that the Government employees are against the strikes but Government is forcing them for the strikes by backing out of a written agreement they made with employees last year.
“The Government had nominated a committee to look into our demands but the committee has slept on the report,” said Javed Trali, spokesperson of the Joint Consultative Committee. “We are demanding what the Government has promised us”, he said.
The demand for raising the retirement age for the State Government employees has become a ticklish issue as those opposed to the move assert it would result in a two-year moratorium on Government employment. This, they point out, would add to the swelling numbers of unemployed youths in the State.
However, those favouring the move maintain that once the retirement age is raised and superannuation is halted for two years, the State Government would save millions of rupees that could be used for creating more jobs and speeding up the pace of development in the State.
Our Jammu correspondent adds:
Normal work in many Government and Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) offices remained affected with the one day ‘Kam Chhor Hartal’ of the employees across the region today.
In Jammu, a large number of employees under the leadership of Ram Kumar Sharma, Gafoor Dar and others assembled near Exhibition Ground, in front of Press Club here held strong protest demonstration. Many employees were carrying banners and placards in their hands, depicting their demands. They raised high- pitched slogans in support of their demands.
The strike was observed in the entire State today on the call given by JCC leadership including Abdul Qayoom Wani, Khursheed Alam, Ram Kumar, Gafoor Dar, Kulwant Singh, Balwan Singh, Sayeda Ladakhi, Rafiq Khaniyari, Ganesh Khajuria, Devanand Gill, Amrik Singh, Babu Hussain, Parshotam Sharma, Balwinder Singh, Nazeer Ahmed, Farooq Tarali, Arun Moza and others.
All the sections of State Government, Public Sector, temporary and permanent employees observed nearly complete strike. The employees held demonstrations, staged dharnas at district and tehsil headquarters to lodge their protest against the Government. The general public had to suffer in view of employees strike in many offices. In some of the offices here, the work continued smoothly.
While addressing a large gathering here senior JCC leaders strongly condemned the attitude of the Government. They said that due to non-serious approach of the Government, the employees have been forced to go on strike. The Government has failed to honour its commitment. Nothing on ground has been witnessed regarding agreed demands made with the employees representatives on 19-2-2009, 14-5-2010 and recently on September 15, 2011. They said several representations were given to the Government from time to time after lapse of time given, but Government seemed to be in no mood to respond to the employees’ demands.
In Rajouri town also, the employees held demonstration and protest dharna under the leadership of Karamat Malik, Vijay Sharma, Tanveer Shawl, Satvir Singh and others. At their respective offices, many employees held protest and sat on dharnas. In Poonch the employees protest rally was addressed by Amrik Singh and others. The employees from several departments assembled at PHE complex and held day long dharna and protest rally.
Reports from Kathua, Samba, Udhampur, Kishtwar, Ramban, Doda and Reasi said that similar protest demonstrations weree held by employees and the normal works remained affected. The emergency units of the hospitals, operational staff of urban local bodies, PHE and PDD remained out of the purview of the strike.
Daily Wagers Joint Action Forum also held protest demonstration in front of the tehsil offices separately in support of strike call given by JCC leadership. Mohd Altaf Manhas was leading the protest demonstration here.
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