Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 16: On the call of All India Insurance Employees’ Association, LIC employees of J&K here today staged protest demonstrations outside their offices in support of Samyukt Kisan Morcha and joint platform of central Trade Unions.
The call for countrywide strike and Grameen Bharat Bandh was allegedly against anti-worker and anti-people policies of Central Government.
Speaking on the occasion Pawan Gupta, Divisional Secretary Northern Zone Insurance Employees’ Association Srinagar Division said that LIC employees fully support the demands of workers, peasants and people of India which include stopping privatization of PSUs including insurance and banks, minimum wage of Rs. 26,000 per month for workers, abolition of contractual system for jobs, restoration of Old Pension Scheme and scrapping of NPS.
Other demands he included were repealing of four labour codes and amendments made in IPC/CrPC etc.
Gupta said that wage revision has been due in LIC since August 1, 2022 despite the brilliant performance of LIC with an increase of 49 per cent in its net profit which touched Rs. 9,444 crore for the third quarter ending December 2023.
He said that LIC’s total income saw a substantial increase to Rs. 2,12,447 crore in the latest quarter and the Assets Under Management of LIC reached whooping of Rs. 49.66 lakh crore.
He demanded enhancement of the management’s contribution to NPS from present 10 per cent to 14 per cent.
Immediate Recruitment in LIC especially in Class 3 & 4 was also demanded.
Others who spoke on the occasion were Rajesh Gupta and Raj Kumar Sharma, joint secretaries; Rajesh Kumar, treasurer; Raj Kumar, office secretary; Priya Sharma, Shunali Gupta, Neeraj Bhagat, Women Sub-Committee, Dharminder Kumar, Nanak Chand, Kishore Lal and others.
The programme at Srinagar was led by Aadil, Amarjeet Singh, Ajaz Ah Dar and Javed Bukhari.
The programme was organized at Jammu by R.P Singh, Kathua by Vijay Verma, Samba by Surat Singh, R.S Pura by Jagdish, Udhampur by Sham Singh and Moti Ram, Rajouri by Vikas and Vinod Sharma, Doda by Ram Raj and in Poonch by Raj Kumar.