Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 21: The need based workers and casual labours of the Power Development Department (PDD), held strong protest demonstration outside the office of Chief Engineer (EM&RE) near Canal Road, here today.
A large number of temporary workers of the PDD, under the banner of J&K PDD Need-base/ Casual Labourers Union ( Jammu Province) assembled in front of the office of Chief Engineer PDD here in the morning and started protest demonstration. They were shouting slogans against the higher authorities in the State and demanding release of their pending wages.
The protest-dharna of these workers under the leadership of Akhil Sharma ( Union president) entered the 18th consecutive day today. They were demanding release of the pending wages of 3405 workers, monthly payment to all the workers under a specific wage head and implementation of SRO-381.
The Union president and other speakers strongly condemned the attitude of the higher authorities in the department and alleged that their families are forced to face starvation. They termed the act of denying wages to the workers as violation of human rights. They said that these hapless workers are sitting on protest dharna for the last 18 days but the State Administration has remained unmoved. They said even some workers lost their limbs and suffered severe injuries and amputation while at work but they were not provided relief and support by the department. They warned Government to stop exploitation of workers.
Other trade unionists- Sham Sharma, Bilal Bashir, Abdul Gani, Daljeet Singh, Gurmail and Ashish Verma also spoke on the occasion.
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