* Take out protest march in Jammu, Srinagar
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU/ SRINAGAR, June 18: Entire fleet of the J&K State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) today remained off the road as the employees and temporary workers of the SRTC observed complete strike and took out strong protest march in Jammu, Srinagar and Leh cities.
The wheels of Govt Transport Corporation vehicles including trucks and buses, remained jammed from Lakhanpur to Leh -Ladakh today on the call of the Union. Even the interstate route buses of the Corporation suspended their operations, causing huge loss to the SRTC revenue.
The SRTC employees in Jammu held strong protest demonstration outside the office of Managing Director (Regional Headquarters) near Railway Station. A large number of employees under the banner of SRTC Workers Union assembled at Regional Headquarters and held protest under the leadership of its president , Paramjeet Singh and Ashok Mehra (Vice chairman). Holding protest demonstration there for some time, then they moved towards the office of Divisional Commission Jammu where they submitted a memorandum for the Transport Minister (DyCM), Kavinder Gupta.
They are demanding release of 34% pending DA installments, regularization of consolidated workers (drivers and others) who have completed 8 years of service, enhancement of budgetary support to SRTC etc. The Union also demanded that about 400 trucks of SRTC have been withdrawn by the CAPD Ministry to accommodate `some blue eyed’ transporters/ contractors for the transportation of CAPD ration in Jammu, Kashmir and Leh, thus causing extensive losses to the SRTC. They demanded immediate intervention of Chief Minister and alleged that former CAPD Minister has played this game to ruin SRTC.
In Srinagar also strong protest demonstration was held under the leadership Union Chairman, Wazahat Hussain. The workers held strong demonstration and also took out protest march from Residency Road. Hussain also addressed large gathering and accused former CAPD Minister for disengaging SRTC fleet of trucks and engaging a `blue eyed’ trucks contractor to supply ration in Jammu and Srinagar besides other places across the State. He described it as clear violation of SRO 157 of the State Government. He said that this arrangement had been done by the previous Govt to save the SRTC from the losses. He sought immediate intervention of the Chief Minister and Chief secretary in this connection. He also warned to intensify strike in near future. In Leh and Kargil also the strike remained complete and no SRTC vehicle was allowed to ply.
Meanwhile, Wazahat Hussain said that on the call of the Govt a meeting was held with the Commissioner/ Secretary Transport and PHE, M Raju in Civil Sectt this afternoon. He said since DyCM was out of station till June 25, a meeting has been fixed with him on June 26 at 4 pm in Civil Secretary with SRTC Union. Till then the SRTC Union has suspended the strike. If the demands of the SRTC Union were not addressed, the Union would resume complete Chakka Jam strike, Wazahat said.
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