Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR/JAMMU, Aug 22: Police today foiled the employees’ march to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s Gupkar residence, detaining hundreds of them in city’s different police stations.
The employees were protesting on the call given by Jammu and Kashmir Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) for implementation of the agreement signed between the State Government and JCC leadership.
The agitating employees were demanding extension of the retirement age from 58 to 60, regularization of daily wagers and removal of pay anomalies in the clerical cadre, besides budgetary support for Public Sector Undertakings.
After assembling in Polo view park, the employees decided to march to the CM’s residence to lodge their, but a heavy contingent of police deployed few meters outside the park intercepted them.
Police used dyed water to disperse the employees and around 100 employees were taken into custody. They included top JCC leaders, Abdul Qayoom Wani, Nusrat Beigh, Farooq Andrabi and Manzoor Ahmad Pampori. They were released in the evening.
“The employees will no more suffer because of anti-people policies of the government. We want Government to fulfill its promises made to five lakh employees through an agreement. We will go for an intensified agitation if the Govern-ment’s attitude towards the employees doesn’t change,” president EJAC-Q, Abdul Qayoom Wani told the employees gathering before taking out a protest rally.
Due to the strike called by the employees, work in most of the Government offices was affected.
The employees will strike work in the offices tomorrow to mark their pen-down strike call given by their leadership last week.
Shouting slogans against the Government and in support of their demand, the protesting employees under the banner of JCC held demonstrations at all the district headquarters and submitted memorandum to the State Government through District Development Commi-ssioners.
At Jammu city, the protest demonstration was held outside the office of Divisional Commissioner where several employees’ leaders addressed and strongly criticized the Government for delaying tactics.
Warning a decisive agitation to get the demand fulfilled, they appealed the State Government employees to observe complete pen down strike on August 23 and hold gate demonstration in their respective office complexes.
Those who addressed the protest demonstration, included Gafoor Dar, Ganesh Khajuria, Amrik Singh, Kulwant Singh Hari Singh, Rajinder Kumar, Darshan Singh, Moulvi Muneer Ahmed, Moulvi Nazir Ahmed, Ravinder Singh, Ramesh Singh, Gopal Dass, Tanveer Hussain, Darshan Sharma, Deepak Gupta, Subash Baru, Rana, Rajiv Kumar Sharma, Jaswant Singh, Jagdish Sharma and L K Dutta.
Reports from various district headquarters said that similar protest demonstrations were held at Samba, Udhampur, Kathua, Reasi, Rajouri, Poonch, Doda and Ramban.
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