Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Dec 10: Water Works (PHE) Employees Association held a protest rally at Ghari under the chairmanship of Som Nath, senior vice president of PHE Employees Association, Jammu province, in which employees drawn from Ghari, Rehmbal, Jib,Thathi, Hartaryan, Chak Dhanu, Tikri, Mand etc participated.
Mr Som Nath while addressing the rally, strongly criticized the attitude of the Government and concerned Minister towards the department employees and workers, who have not been paid their wages for the past 28 months thereby compelling them to launch agitation.
Mr Som Nath said the Government should provide pending wages of nearly 28 months and frame a policy to regularize them. He said the provision for release of wages should be kept in the budget so that all pending wages could be released in one go. He also demanded to put a halt on discrimination with the workers and employees of Jammu province.
The other demands voiced in the meeting included Release of wages; Implementation of Minimum Wages Act; Immediate regularization of workers; Putting an end to discrimination with workers of Jammu province; meeting shortage of staff to effectively man the on-going water supply schemes; Change of designation as per nature of job being performed by the workers; Payment to those engaged in lieu of land donation; and Enhancement in daily wage rate to Rs 150 to Rs 350.
It was also demanded for putting an end to the discrimination being meted out to the employees of Jammu province by way of very less emoluments to them as compared to their counterparts in Kashmir valley.
The speakers also demanded immediate release of 6% DA installment with effect from July 1, 2015 for Government employees as already been release for Central Government employees. They also demanded sanctioning of all posts which were created in 2003 so that cases under SRO 43 may be considered against these posts and senior most CP workers could be regularized. Repair and maintenance of pump and duty rooms and issuance of charcoal and T&P was also demanded.
Mr Som Nath appealed all the leaders of different associations of the department to constitute a united front so that State Government could be forced to fulfill the genuine demands of the employees and workers of the department.
Others who spoke included Vijay Kumar, general secretary, Rattan Singh, Suraj Parkash, Makhan Chand, Dinesh Kesar, Rajinder Sharma, Charan Dass, Shanker Dass, Prem Nath, Ved Parkash, Bhagwan Dass, Liaqat Ali, Karan Singh, Isher Dass,. Nek Ram etc.
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