Jammu: Hundreds of daily-wagers, including a large number of ASHA workers, on Monday took out a protest march here on the first day offices reopened after the ‘Darbar Move’, demanding regularisation of their services and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act.
Protesters attempted to cross the barricades, which led to a scuffle with police personnel, following which the president of the All J&K Daily Wagers Sangharsh Samiti, Sunny Kant Chib, was detained.
The protesters, who had assembled under the banner of All J&K Daily Wagers Sangharsh Samiti, were marching towards the Civil Secretariat to press for their long-pending demands. They were raising slogans against the government and seeking justice for daily wagers.
They were stopped by a heavy contingent of police near the MLA Hostel where barricades and barbed-wire fencing had been put up to prevent them from proceeding towards the secretariat.
Chib said they have been holding protests for the past two years, demanding that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah deliver on his promise to regularise daily wagers. “Nothing has been done till now. Today’s protest was to wake up this government so that demands of regularisation of daily wagers and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act are fulfilled,” he told reporters.
“The chair on which Omar Abdullah is sitting today does not belong to his family, it belongs to these poor people. It is because of their votes that he is sitting in that chair today. If he occupies that position but cannot deliver justice to the poor, he has no right to remain in that chair,” he said.
He accused the government of being preoccupied with politics while ignoring the problems of poor people.
“You are only hungry for power and for building your own houses and empires, not for delivering justice to the poor,” Chib said.
The organisation had resolved to continue its struggle until its demands, including regularisation of services and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act, were fulfilled.
“If you want to remain in that chair, deliver justice to the poor. Either implement our demands and pass the required regularisation order, or vacate the chair,” he said.
