Police foils employees march to Civil Secretariat Strike to continue till Wednesday Srinagar, Sep 9: Police on Monday foiled the march of government employees towards Civil Secretariat here and detained around 100 employees in different police stations of the city before using force on them. Hundreds of employees assembled at the Sher-e-Kashmir Park and tried to take out a protest march. A huge contingent of police armed with riot control gear intercepted the employees, using coloured water canons to disperse them. Subsequently, the agitating employees divided into smaller groups and raised slogans against the government and in favour of their demands. Police charged the employees with canes as they tried to proceed towards Lal Chowk. All but 100 employees were pushed into the police vehicles that were kept standing there to detain the protesting employees. “Over a hundred employees were bundled into already waiting police vehicles near the venue and detained at various police stations of the city, including Kothibagh and Ram Munshi Bagh police stations,” President Food Employees Association, Haji Muhammad Ashraf told CNS adding that all the government offices would remain shut for next two days till Wednesday. He said that the police action was “undemocratic and unwarranted as they wanted to register their protest peacefully outside Civil Secretariat to remind the government of thier promises. “The government can’t stop us to use peaceful means to raise our voice,” he said. Employees Joint Action Committee president, Abdul Qayoom Wani said that, “We will not bow before the government without getting our demands fulfilled. We have tolerated a lot, but the government is not serious to solve the problems of the employees,” he said. Meanwhile, a protest was also held at Civil Secretariat here which was led by newly appointed JCC convenor, Rauf Ahmad Bhat. Bhat, who is also chairman Civil Secretariat non-Gazetted Employees Union, termed Monday’s programme as “success” and appealed all the employees to observe pen-down for the next two days. “It was a big success for employees today as employees exhibited their resolve and confidence to get their demands done,” Bhat told CNS. The protest march had been called by Joint consultative Committee (JCC), an umbrella of several trade unions in Jammu and Kashmir. The employees have been demanding, among other things, extension of retirement age from 58 to 60, regularization of daily wagers, removal of pay anomalies in the clerical cadre, besides regularization of contractual employees and budgetary support for public sector undertakings. Some of the leaders who were detained by police included, Abdul Qayoom Wani, Haji Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, Mohammad Afzal, Aijaz Hakim, Reyaz Sofi, Shabnam Fayaz, Enigneer Shakil, Hasan Rambagi and Abdul Hamid Ganaie.
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 15:45:21 +0000