PHE daily wagers stage protest, reiterate demands

PHE daily wagers during a protest demonstration in Jammu on Monday. -Excelsior/Rakesh
PHE daily wagers during a protest demonstration in Jammu on Monday. -Excelsior/Rakesh

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 11: Daily wagers of Jal Shakti (PHE) Department staged a strong protest demonstration at Jal Shakti complex at BC Road, here today, demanding release of their pending wages in one go and regularization of their services.
Hundreds of daily wagers of the department including Casual Labour and Need Based Workers under the banner of All J&K PHE ITI trained CP Workers and Land Donors Jammu province assembled in the office complex of Chief Engineer Jal Shakti Department and started protest demonstration.
Led by their president Deepak Gupta, they shouted slogans in support of their pending demands. They were demanding release of their wages pending for the last many months and regularization of all type of daily wagers. They alleged that due to denial of their hard earned wages, their families were facing lot of hardships. Many of them were forced to face starvation.
The protesting workers said that the authorities have adopted delaying tactics to regularize the services of 22,053 daily wagers including Casual Labour, ITI Trainees, CP workers/Land Donors and other workers in Jal Shakti Department. They said Lt Governor Manoj Sinha has assured in November last year to resolve their issue within three months but unfortunately their issues remained unresolved till date.
“The Government must take some decision about our fate,” they said and also demanded revision of Minimum Wages Act in J&K UT as per Central norms.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion include Jeevan Singh, Subhash Rakwal, Bhanu Sambyal, Manjeet Singh, Pawan Kumar, Vijay Kumar, Surinder Kumar, Binkel Manhas and Shamshu Din.