Police foils PHE daily wagers’ Kashmir Chalo March at Nagrota

PHE daily wagers taking out ‘Kashmir Chalo March’ in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/ Rakesh
PHE daily wagers taking out ‘Kashmir Chalo March’ in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/ Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 24: The police today foiled a massive Kashmir Chalo on-foot march of the PHE daily wagers, ITI trained and CP workers near Nagrota on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway about 12 kms from here this afternoon.
Thousands of PHE workers who are on strike for the last 71 days, under the leadership of Tanveer Hussain and Deepak Gupta assembled at PHE complex B C Road in the morning. A large number of PHE daily rated workers from various districts, PHE Divisions and Sub Divisions of Jammu region including Jammu, Samba, Kathua, Reasi, Rajouri, Poonch, Akhnoor, Nowshera, Basohli, Billawar etc assembled at Jammu and then started their protest march for Kashmir at around 10 am.
Taking banners and placards in their hands, these workers who are on strike for the last 71 days, were shouting slogans in support of their demands. They were demanding release of their pending wages of 35 months and also their regularization. They alleged that despite assurance given by senior officers and political leaders several times their issues were not resolved.
Today’s on-foot protest march to Srinagar was meant to conduct `Gherao’ of Civil Secretariat as the Assembly Session is going to commence from tomorrow. They were allowed to walk up to nearly 12 km of distance on foot by the Jammu District Administration. As they reached at Jagti near Nagrota on main four lane National Highway (Bypass Road), a strong police contingent raised barricades and blocked the road. The police stopped their movement ahead. The agitating workers then sat on dharna on the road after showing some resistance.
The movement of vehicular traffic came to halt on this busy highway. The Traffic police authorities then, diverted the vehicles on old road via Nagrota town. Later, a deputation of PHE Workers Union led by Deepak Gupta met the Commissioner Secretary PHE Sanjeev Verma, DIG Ashkoor Wani, Chief Engineer PHE Rajiv Gandotra and SE PHE Jammu Sunil Gupta.
Mr Verma and Mr Gandotra later told the Excelsior that talks with the representatives of PHE workers remained very positive. They were told that Govt was already working on the process of framing policy for regularization and verification is being conducted. The agitating workers were also apprised about the miseries of the general public as they are suffering during these hot summer days. They hoped that something positive would come up shortly.

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