Jammu, Nov 12: The police on Monday thwarted an attempt of the protesting Public Health Engineering (PHE) department workers to picket the civil secretariat here.
Hundreds of PHE workers, demanding payment of their salaries and regularization of their services, took out a rally from their headquarters at B C Road and marched towards the civil secretariat, officials said.
However, the policemen deployed near Indira Chowk did not allow the protesters to move ahead, following which they staged a sit-in and blocked the main road, leading to a traffic jam.
Later, a delegation of the protesters was allowed inside the secretariat to meet the officers concerned, the officials said.
The provincial president of the PHE Workers’ Association, Tanvir Hussain, threatened to intensify the agitation if the issue was not resolved at the earliest.
“We will not budge and will continue with our protest till our demands are met as our families are suffering due to failure of the authorities to release our pending salaries and ensure monthly payments,” Hussain said.
“The state government is only giving us assurances, leaving us with no option but to come on the roads time and again,” he said.
The workers had gone on indefinite strike on September 07, but resumed work after the authorities assured that their genuine demands would be met, Hussain said, adding that nothing such had happened so far.
