Srinagar, February 5: Demanding regularization, employees of National Health Mission (NHM) and casual laborers of Agriculture department on Tuesday held separate protests at Lal Chowk to press for their demands.
While NHM employees blocked Residency Road to protest government’s ‘dillydallying’ to regularize their service, the casual laborers of Agriculture department assembled at Pratap Park to highlight their issues including pending salaries and regularization of service.
Continuing their protest, NHM employees including men and women said they will not rest until their demands are met.
They said the regularization of service, equal pay for equal work has been their prime demand which is yet to be considered by the government thus forcing them to hit streets.
“We have decided to continue our protest till our legitimate demands are met. If the government continues to ignore our problems we will intensify our protest,” said NHM Employees Union President.
Later the agitated employees blocked Residency Road which severally hampered traffic movement on the busy road for half an hour.
Earlier the causal laborers of Agriculture department staged a peaceful sit-in at Pratap Park alleging that the government has withheld their salaries since 2018. They also alleged that those who have served the department for more than seven years are yet to be regularized.
The casual laborers claimed that despite repeated assurances from the government regarding their regularization no tangible steps were taken in this direction thus far.
“We poor people are always forced to come on roads, I have been working in the Agriculture department since 1997 but my regularization seems to be distant dream. Our salary is pending for more than a year,” said Abdul Hameed a casual laborer.
The protesting casual laborers appealed the Governor administration to ensure their regularization and release of salaries at earliest.
