*20 daily wagers detained by police, released
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 1: At least six PHE daily wagers were injured when they were lathi-charged while taking out massive protest march towards Civil Secretariat from BC Road, PHE complex today.
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These Jal Shakti/PHE workers are on strike for the last 42 days, demanding release of their pending wages and regularization of their services. Despite three rounds of talks with higher authorities in the Jal Shakti Department, their dialogue remained inconclusive.
Today, intensify their agitation, thousands of PHE workers from eight districts, excluding Poonch and Kishtwar, assembled outside the office of Chief Engineer PHE Jammu, at BC Road , Jammu at around 12 noon under the banner of PHE United Front and held strong protest demonstration. They were shouting slogans I support of their demands and also against LG’s Administration, BJP and other higher authorities. Many of them were carrying banners and placards depicting slogans.
They were in large number and many of them sat on dharna on B C Road for about an hour. Later, at around 1 pm they started protest march towards Civil Secretariat. They were stopped by strong contingent of police twice but they broke the barricades and moved ahead. During physical clash with police, the cops resorted to mild cane charge, in which at least half a dozen workers sustained some injuries, a United Front senior member Ravi Hans said.
They reached near Shalamar Temple Chowk from where the police did not allow them to move ahead. After staging protest there for some time, then they were made to disperse by the policemen. At least a score of protesting workers and their leaders, were detained by police and shifted to DPL Gandhinagar, However, they were released in the evening.
It is pertinent to mention here that a delegation of PHE workers met the Principal Secretary, Jal Shakti /PHE department Ashok Parmar in presence of Chief Engineer PHE Jammu- at Civil Secretariat on July 15. The meeting Parmar assured the delegation that he will take up their issues at the higher level and resolve it at the earliest. He had told that he had already written to the Finance department regarding SRO- 520 and was waiting for the reply. Even after three rounds of talks the issue could not be resolved so far.
The employees representatives including Ravi Hans, Hoshiar Singh, Navdeep Singh, Rajinder Singh Taj and Mohan Lal Sharma and others said that in the past, they had called off their strike merely on assurances several times but nothing happened after that. Therefore, they were not prepared to call off strike until an order from the Government is issued. They resolved to continue their strike and extended strike for next 72 hours. Today was the 42nd day of the strike, under the banner of PHE Employees United Front (Jammu province). The daily rated and consolidated workers of the PHE/ Jal Shakti department are on strike since June 22, 2022.
The PHE workers apart from Chief Engineer’s office B C Road Jammu, held protest demonstrations at various PHE Divisions of the region. They are demanding regularization, enhancement of Minimum Wages as per Central law in J&K UT and release of pending wages of 70 months of PHE workers.
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