To draw the State Government’s attention to their pending demands, hundreds of contractual employees of Uttarakhand Purva Sainik Kalyan Nigam limited (UPNl) who have been on an indefinite strike since March 9 rallied from Parade Ground to Vidhan Sabha on Thursday, the second day of the Vidhan Sabha Budget session. They raised slogans against the State government. They alleged that the employees are being sacked in various departments, including planning, labour, employment exchange, higher education and ITI.
The protestors demanded the State Chief Minister to take immediate steps to fulfill their long pending demands. Notably, the protesters had rallied to the Secretariat on Wednesday regarding the same. However, they were mollified for the time being as the administration arranged a meeting with Chief Minister at Vidhan Sabha campus on Thursday. A team of ten federation members met the CM.
Agitators under the banner of UPNl Employees Federation gathered at Parade Ground before they took out the rally towards the Vidhan Sabha. Meanwhile, the administration had made elaborate security arrangements at the protest site aside from erecting barricades on several roads. SSP Dr Sadanand Date, SP City Ajay Singh, additional SP Kamlesh Upadhyay, CO Manoj Katyal, dozens of inspectors and sub-inspectors and large number of police constables apart from three sub-divisional magistrates were present at the barricade. The agitators were finally stopped at the barricade at Rispana bridge.
The protesters had a heated argument with police personnel as they tried to break the barricade. later, they sat on demonstration, continuing with anti-government slogans. It was during this time that the administration intervened and facilitated them with a meeting with the CM
UPNl Employees Association state president Bhawesh Jagudi said they
had given several memorandums regarding their demands to the government officials and public representatives, but to no avail.
The protesters demanded regularisation of jobs, reinstatement of the sacked employees, revision of salary, dearness allowances (DA) and materiality leave for the women employees. They alleged that the public representatives they had met had given them false assurances that their demands would soon be fulfilled.