Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 9: Demanding release of pending arrears, members of All J&K RTC Volunteer Retired Employees Association today held a protest demonstration and also attempted to march towards Civil Secretariat.
The demonstration was held under the leadership of Dev Raj Bali, president of the Association, at Maharaja Hari Singh Park, Jammu. They were demanding release of COLA arrears with effect from 1999 to 31st December 2005, 6th Pay Commission arrears with effect from 1st January 2006 to March 2012 and DA arrears with effect from April, 2012 to March 2021.
Shouting slogans in support of their demands, the protesters strongly criticized the Finance Department and Transport Authority for alleged delaying tactics over release of due payments of the RTC volunteer retired employees.
They claimed that despite having sufficient funds, the Government was delaying release of the payments whereas all bills have already been prepared by the RTC and sent to the Civil Secretariat.
“These two departments are harassing us without any logic and it is beyond our power of understanding why they have been resorting to such practice,” they said and added that during this long struggle, 75 VRS retired employees of JKRTC have breathed their last as they could not afford proper medical treatment for want of funds while those surviving are also sailing in the same boat as they too have no source of income like that of pension etc.
The protesting people appealed to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Lt Governor J&K, Manoj Sinha to intervene and get their dues released.
The demonstration was addressed by Sat Bhushan Singh, Surinder Singh, Bawinder Singh, Ramesh Bhau, Ram Paul, Shiv Kumar and others.
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