Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 20: The protest rally of voluntarily retired workers and employees of J&K State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) towards Civil Secretariat was today foiled by the strong contingent of police near Dogra Chowk here today.
The VRS given SRTC workers, under the banner of All J&K SRTC Volunteer Retirement Employees Association assembled at Exhibition Ground near Press Club here in the morning and held strong protest demonstration. Dev Raj Bali, president and general secretary Surinder Singh of the association were leading the protest.
After staging protest for some time at the venue, the retired SRTC employees holding banners and placards in hands started protest march towards Civil Secretariat. They were shouting slogans in support of their demands and also against SRTC management and Transport Minister. As they moved towards Vinayak Bazar (Lower Gumat Bazar), a strong contingent of police intercepted them. The police raised barricades and did not allow them to move ahead. The cops asked them to move back to the same venue at Exhibition Ground.
The workers showed some resistance but could not move ahead in view of strong police cordon. Later, the agitating SRTC workers moved back to the original venue and started protest demonstration. Several trade union leaders addressed the gathering and criticized the management of SRTC for its failure to clear pending 126 slabs of COLA, clear pending arrears and provide benefit of 6th Pay Commission to the VRS given SRTC employees. Besides Dev Raj Bali, Balwinder Singh and Surinder Singh also addressed the workers’ gathering. The workers later dispersed after holding protest for about an hour.
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