VRS employees stage protest, clash with cops

Excelsior Correspondent

VRS employees raising slogans during protest march at Jammu on Friday.—Excelsior/Rakesh
VRS employees raising slogans during protest march at Jammu on Friday. —Excelsior/Rakesh

JAMMU, Jan 10: Demanding clearance of their pending dues and arrears, J&K State Road Transport Corporation employees who have taken VRS staged a protest here today which led to a minor clash between them and police.
The VRS employees, led by president, J&K State Road Transport Corporation Employees Association Dev Raj Bali, attempted to march towards Civil Secretariat but were stopped by police at Dogra Chowk, leading to a minor clash.
The employees raised slogans against the Government for not clearing their pending dues of Cost Of Living Allowance and grant of arrears on account of implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission.
“The Government has failed to pay attention to our repeated protests. They have turned a deaf ear towards our demands”, Bali told reporters.
“We want the Government to pay us all the dues and arrears of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). We will continue our protest till our demands are met”, he said.
Bali said that the employees will sit on dharna on January 17 and will carry out a march towards Civil Secretariat on January 29.
Over 500 JKSRTC employees, who took VRS in 2011, claimed that their dues had still not been paid by the Government.
The protestors were demanding 126 slabs of COLA and 6th pay commission arrears.
Among others present were Kulbir Singh, Santokh Singh, BV Sharma, Prem Nath, DN Sharma, Ehsan Elahi, Surjit Singh, Sain Mohammad, Subash Singh, etc.