KL Report
SRINAGAR
The Jammu and Kashmir Police on Monday foiled a march by government employees. Most of the work in government offices remained paralyzed as the official workforces stayed away from the work in protest against non-fulfillment of their demands.
As per a local news agency, KNS, some eyewitnesses and sources said that hundreds of employees under the banner of Joint Consultative Committee assembled near Exhibition Crossing here and tried to march towards Civil Secretariat which houses the office of Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues.
However, as soon as employees set off, a large contingent of police, deployed already in anticipation of the protest rally, asked them to disperse peacefully, they said. The protesting employees, however, refused to pay any heed and they continued to march ahead towards the secretariat, prompting police to resort to lathi charge and use purple coloured water against them, they said.
In police action and retaliation by the protesting employees, at-least a dozen employees were injured and six of them have been identified as Bashir Ahmad, Nazir Ahmad Ghulam Mohiudin Bhat, Balweer Singh, Altaf Ahmad Ganie and Mohammad Rajab Mir.
Police, they said, also arrested over a hundred employees including leaders of JCC, the amalgam of various employees unions. Among the detained include JCC senior leader and president EJAC (Q) Abdul Qayoom Wani, Farooq Ahmad Trali, Muntazir Mohidin, Mansoor Ahmad Pampori. Most of the employees were lodged in Shaheed Gunj police station, they said.
Report from Jammu said that employees staged protest demonstrations outside the office of Divisional Commissioner. A similar protest was also held outside the offices of Deputy Commissioners of Leh and Kargil in Ladakh. One of protest demonstrations was led by JCC leader Mansima Ladakhi, they added.
Earlier, the work in government offices including the civil secretariat was severely affected as employees observed pen down strike.
Meanwhile, JCC’s spokesman Farooq Ahmad Trali while strongly condemning the police action, threatened to intensify the agitation in support of their demands including enhancement of retirement age from 58-60 years and regularization of daily-wage and casual workers.
“We have called a meeting on July 15 to decide future course of action,” Farooq Ahmad Trali told KNS. “As government continues to cold shoulder our demands, we are left with no other option but to intensify agitation for our genuine and already accepted demands by the government.”
Besides increase in the retirement age, JCC seeks removal of pay anomalies in different cadres of the state services, as well as regularization of daily wage and casual workers.
