Early Times Report
Jammu, Feb 8: The drinking water supply to the Jammu region has been hit for the past 24 hours as thousands of the public health engineering (PHE) department daily earners and regular employees went on a daylong strike.
The ongoing 24 hours Kam Chod Hartal which was started yesterday is being extended for another 24 hours, stated senior leaders of Phe Employees United Front while talking to media persrons as PHE complex Bc Raod jammu in presence of hundreds of PHe daily rated workers.
They further said that work remained totally paralyzed in all PHE divsions, Phe city- 1 , North , South , Rural , Kathua , samba , Akhnoor, Udhampur, Rajouri, Nowsehra , Poonch , Doda , Ramban , Reasi , Dharmari Ground water Drilling Division , Procurement and Kishtwar .
The workers had hoped that their demands would be met after the abrogation of Article 370, but the UT administration has done nothing so far to redress their grievances. "For years, the daily rated workers have been denied wages and the regularisation process is going on at a snail's pace. It is a violation of rules and the fundamental rights of workers who are working to ensure drinking water supply to people," said Bakshi Singh, PHE Employees United Front leader.
The major demands of the workers include regularisation of their jobs as per SRO-64, payment of monthly wages to all workers, release of pending wages and wages as per the Central government norms. Some sections of regular employees are also seeking rationalisation in the promotion process. "We appeal to the people to support our struggle as thousands of workers are facing discrimination for years.
This is unjustified," said Tanveer Hussain, a representative of the daily rated workers. There are an estimated 22,000 daily rated workers in the Jammu division and 11,000 in the Kashmir valley. A majority of them have been protesting for years to demand regular salaries and regularisation of their jobs as had been promised to them by the previous state governments. |
