Hundreds of daily wagers of the Jal Shakti department on Tuesday staged a protest near the residence of Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina here to press for their long-pending demands, including regularisation.
The workers, under the banner of Public Health Engineering (PHE) employees, assembled in Gandhi Nagar and marched towards the residence of Raina, who assured them that Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha was sensitive towards their issues and was taking necessary steps to address them.
Over 60,000 daily wagers, casual labourers and other workers are working in various departments over the past two decades and are regularly holding protests in both Jammu and Srinagar for regularisation of their jobs, minimum wages and release of pending wages.
The protesters reached Raina’s residence and staged a peaceful demonstration.
The BJP leader assured the protesters that he would arrange a meeting between them and Sinha.
Ravi Hans, one of the leaders of the protest, said, ”We want a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah during his visit to Jammu to discuss our issues.” Responding to Hans, Raina said he and his party always stood with the PHE employees in support of their genuine demands.
”We will continue our support for you. We have already raised the demand for implementation of the Minimum Wages Act with the government in Delhi as we believe that it will mitigate the suffering of the workers till their regularisation,” he said.
