Hundreds of daily wagers and Asha workers staged a protest march in Jammu on Monday as offices reopened. They demanded regular jobs and the Minimum Wages Act. Police stopped the group near the MLA Hostel. President Sunny Kant Chib said, "If you want to remain in that chair, deliver justice."
Hundreds of daily wagers, including Asha workers, on Monday staged a protest march here on the first day of reopening of 'darbar move' offices. The protesting daily wagers demanded regularisation of their services and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act.
The protesters also scuffled with police personnel following which Sunny Kant Chib, president of the All J&K Daily Wagers Sangharsh Samiti, 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 demands.
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.
He informed that 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.