PHE daily wagers stage protest

Srinagar, Mar 10: Scores of PHE daily wagers staged a protest in Srinagar on Monday to press for their multiple demands including regularisation and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act.

Scores of the aggrieved protestors assembled in the PHE office in Lal Chowk and took out a protest march.

The police, however, foiled the protest march and confined the protestors inside the premises of the PHE office. The daily wagers said that “government has been turning a blind eye towards their plight and it was reflected in the current budget session.”

The Chairman of Kashmir PHE Joint Employees Association, Sajad Ahmad Parray, who was leading the march, said that they will intensify the protest if the demands were not met. “For over a decade, the governments have been playing with their future by not framing regularization policy for them,” he said.

“We have worked in every kind of situation in the valley, but our service has never been valued. We are being paid peanuts while our counterparts in other parts of the country are being paid as per the Minimum Wages Act. Before the election, all the politicians made huge promises and made our issue an important part of their campaign, but when they are elected, no one is talking about our issues,” Parray said.

“If any concrete reply does not come from the government in coming days, we will hold a major protest in coming days,” they said.

During the protest, chaotic scenes were witnessed when the protesting daily wagers tried to jump the gate of the PHE office and march forward amid police presence.

“We don’t want to come on roads but we have been forced by the callous approach of the government. We are getting peanuts as wages, and our future is dark. There is no policy about our regularisation. Amid the high inflation, we cannot feed our families, “said an aggrieved protestor.