 Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 23 : Nearly two dozen contractual employees were taken into preventive custody here after they tried to take out a rally in support of their demands, including the demand for regularisation of their services and proper pay scale.
Carrying banners and placards, dozens of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) employees, including women, assembled at Partap Park in the heart of Srinagar this afternoon and later marched to nearby Press Enclave to highlight their demands.
As the slogan-shouting protestors tried to march towards Civil Secretariat - the seat of the government, police swung into action and detained nearly two dozen employees in order to maintain law and order, officials said.
"We have been protesting for a long time and want the government to fulfill our various demands, including brining the NRHM employees under the ambit of new employment policy," Yasmeena, one of the protestors, said.
She said the NRHM employees are doing their best and need to be brought under proper pay scale.
"We want equal pay for equal work," Yasmeena said, adding, they are being discriminated by the government as they are not being paid even if some one goes for maternity leave.
'BJP will face crushing defeat in Bihar, worse than Delhi'
Srinagar, May 23 : Congress today said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP will face a crushing defeat in poll-bound Bihar, which will be "worse than what it faced in Delhi assembly polls".
"Modi is going to face defeat in Bihar which will be worse than Delhi. They (BJP) will never win (in Bihar)," Congress national spokesperson Meem Afzal told reporters here.
Addressing a press conference, the leader noted that the party in power at the Centre is inclined to loose in the face of a third front.
"Whenever third front forces have come together (in Bihar) -- be it 1977, 1989 or 1996 -- the ruling party at the centre had to suffer. We also suffered," he said.
Although no pre-poll alliances have been finalised by Congress in Bihar that is set to face polls later this year, Afzal said that the party was "part of the camp" led by the Third front forces.
The press conference was part of the series of events organised by Congress across the country to hit out at the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre.
The party spokesperson also vehemently denied BJP's claim that Congress compromised on the national security, when UPA government was in power.
"We never compromised the national security ... but see what is happening since the Modi government came to power last year. There have been 746 ceasefire violations in Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
The leader noted that the UPA government had decided to raise Mountain Strike Corps keeping in view the security situation along the China border.
"We had provided for 90,000 strong Corps but the Modi government has reduced it by 50 per cent. Why? This came few weeks before Modi's visit to China," he said.
Afzal said the BJP government had failed on all fronts including controlling the rising prices and bringing back the black money.
"In June last year, the oil price in international market was USD 118 per barrel which has come down to USD 64 per barrel this year. However, petrol is being sold at Rs 64 per litre in Delhi, almost same as last year. The extra money has gone into the oil companies or into the additional taxes levied.
"There has been hike of Rs 5 per litre in diesel price and Rs 7 per litre in petrol price over the past 15 days, which has led to increase in prices of other commodities," he added.
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