Four months after going on their peaceful agitation, relatives of the deceased employees of the Energy Department turned violent and ransacked the residence of Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das here on Friday.
The Commissionerate Police detained about 30 agitators in connection with the incident. The incident happened in morning when members of the Mruta Bidyut Karmachari Dustha Paribar Thaithan Samiti were protesting in front of the Surya Nagar residence of the Minister. They suddenly turned violent and pelted eggs, potatoes, onions and stones and broke flower pots, glasses and window panes of the house.
“We have been sitting here since past four months demanding jobs against our deceased family members. We lost patience today and took to pelting of egg, onion and stone. The police also used force against us. Many of us have sustained injuries on our heads and broken hands because of police excesses. We will continue our agitation,” said an elderly woman on the spot.
Minister Das, however, refused to lodge a complaint with the police.He said the Government is taking steps to compensate the concerned families.
“Whatever they did today, they did because of anger and frustration. I see no problem in it. Employment is a technical matter. We have a gazette notification that mandates that we can’t employ on rehabilitation. We can’t immediately train the next of kin of a deceased employee. Besides, there are other complications. The issue had been discussed in the Assembly, and we had formed a committee to see how they can receive more insurance, remuneration and other benefits,” said the Minister. Notably, the relatives of deceased workers of the department had been conducting a marathon agitation at the lower PMG here since past four months. On Thursday, they had warned to take law into their hands, should their demands go unnoticed.