Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 22: Police today foiled the protest march of casual labourers and daily wagers of Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department and detained scores of them.
They were protesting against the Government’s failure to address their demands of regularization, release of wages on monthly basis. The protesting employees were shouting slogans in support of their demands.
Chairman, All Kashmir PHE Causal Labourers Association, Sajad Ahmad Parray said that despite working as daily wagers for the department from more than last 15 years, the Government has failed to regularize them. “We have become the victims of Coalition Government but we will not stop fighting for our genuine rights till promises made with us are fulfilled”, Parray said.
Parray said the Government has promised that all the daily wagers and casual labours engaged from 1994 to 2005 in PHE would be engaged and those engaged 2005 onwards (both paid and unpaid), confirmed as daily rated workers and monthly salary will be given to them, but no such step was taken by Government. Parray also said the Government has failed to fulfill their promise of releasing the wages.
The protest call was given by Kashmir PHE Joint Employees Association in support of its demands for regularization of daily wage workers, casual labourers and need-based workers.
Keeping in view that the elections are near in the state, these employees have decided launch a door to door campaign and expose the politicians of their false promises when they were in power. “We will teach these politicians a lesson who deceived us and played with our sentiments,” they said.