Casual Labourers stage protest

Casual labourers staging protest in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/ Rakesh
Casual labourers staging protest in Jammu on Tuesday. -Excelsior/ Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 19: Casual labourers of various Government departments today held strong protest demonstration at Press Club here in support of their pending demands.
A large number of daily rated/casual workers from PHE, I&FC, PDD, R&B etc under the banner of J&K Casual Labourers United Front led by Tanveer Hussain, president, senior members Deepak Gupta, Imran Parry (Kashmir Div) and others assembled near Press Club Jammu today and started protest demonstration. They were shouting slogans in support of their demands.
They were demanding their regularization, release of pending wages and implementation of Minimum Wages Act in J&K UT as per Central norms. They said most of the Central laws have been implemented in J&K after coverting it into UT but no change has been brought in the wages, perks and Medical Allowance etc. The Govt is depriving the workers of their legitimate demands and justified issues.
Tanveer said they had met the Union MoS in PMO, Dr Jitender Singh about one and half month ago. He had asked the protesting workers to suspend their agitation with assurance of solving their issues with regard to Minimum Wages Act and payment of wages besides regularization but nothing has been seen on the ground so far. He said the workers have high hopes from Dr Singh and the Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha. After staging protesting dharna for over three hours, they dispersed.
Prominent among those present included, Jeevan Singh, Lucky Chida, Jyoti Rajput, Dinesh Sharma, Ajay Kumar, Mushtaq Ahmed Qadri, Abid Hussain Bhat, Firoz Ahmed, Sher Singh and others.