Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 24: The police today foiled Secretariat `Gherao’ march of clerical staff from various Govt departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and detained about a dozen employees’ leaders.
The employees from Jammu and various other districts, under the banner of Jammu Kashmir Ladakh All Department Clerical Staff Coordination Committee (Jammu province) on the second day of their agitational program assembled at Press Club Jammu near Dogra Chowk at around 11 am and held strong protest demonstration. They were demanding removal of anomalies in pay grade of clerical cadre.
Various senior leaders including Babu Hussain Malik, Ravi Singh Bhau, Bharat Bhushan, Sukhbir Singh and several others addressed the gathering and criticized the State Government for adopting delaying tactics in the implementation of the Committee framed by Govt for the purpose and also rejecting J&K High Court order with regard to the pay anomalies.
On the second consecutive day the clerical cadre employees observed complete strike and the normal work in many offices was affected with the ongoing three-day strike. A large number of employees of all the factions, under the single banner of `Coordination Committee’ have chalked out second phase of this agitational program. On first day of their program, they held strong protest at Udhyog Bhawan in Jammu and also at their respective district headquarters. They were shouting slogans in support of their demands. They also raised slogans against the Government for ignoring their issues despite recommendations of the Cabinet Sub Committee and High Court directives.
As the protesting employees in the shape of large rally moved towards Civil Secretariat from Press Club via Dogra Chowk and Gumat, they were stopped by strong contingent of State police at Ranbir Market, near Indira Chowk. The employees showed some resistance and also had little scuffle with the cops but the Police and CRPF deployed by administration foiled their protest march to Secretariat. The police also arrested about a dozen employees’ leaders including Ravi Singh and Nazir Bhat. They were taken to Bus Stand Police Station but released later in the afternoon.
The cadre leadership has appealed the colleagues across the region to paralyse the work of State Government while observing the strike program.
Prominent among those who accompanied Anil Mehta, Gurmeet Singh, Ashok Singh, Yash Paul Sharma, B B Kotwal, Meenakshi Sharma, Ravi Kumar, Mohd Saleem, Mohd Latief, Onkar Verma, Arun Sharma, Sewa Ram Rathore, Manohar Singh, Balbir Singh, Zahir Abbas, Mansoor Ahmed, Farida Bano, Umar Jan, Kripal Singh, Ansuya Gupta and others.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
