Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 6: The voluntarily retired workers of J&K State Road Transport Corporation (SRTC) held protest demonstration against the management of the Corporation and the Government at Exhibition Ground, near Press Club here today.
The VRS given workers of the State Road Transport Corporation led by Dev Raj Bali, president All J&K SRTC Voluntarily Retired Employees Association, assembled at Exhibition Ground here in the morning and started protest demonstration. They were shouting slogans in support of their demands and also against the SRTC Management and State Finance Department.
The Union leader while speaking on the occasion strongly criticized the SRTC authorities for not paying arrears of the VRS given SRTC employees. He alleged that many VRS given workers of the Corporation are feeling cheated as they have been deprived of their arrears by the management of the Corporation. He said that the retired workers were struggling for their hard earned money for the last about seven years.
The members alleged that merely 50 % arrears have been given to the workers while arrears of the 6th Pay Commission and COLA installments have been denied to them by the SRTC Management. They pointed out that during last seven years of struggle, many VRS/GHS employees have died as they could not afford even the Medical treatment. They demanded 6th Pay Commission arrears from January Ist, 2006 and COLA arrears since 1999 besides pension benefits and 8.33 % bonus on the basic pay.
Prominent among those who joined protest included Davinder Singh, Balwinder Singh, Surinder Singh, Bharat Bhushan, Gulshan Singh, Deep Raj and Dwarka Nath.