Scores of public health engineering (PHE) department daily wagers on Monday staged a demonstration here in this capital city demanding an immediate release of their long pending wages.Reports reaching news gathering agency Global News Service said that scores of PHE daily wagers this morning assembled at Pratap Park here and staged a demonstration against the department. Chanting slogans, the protesters alleged that the department has withheld their salaries for nearly two years due to which they were facing a starvation-like situation.“We demand the release of earned wages for casual labourers, need basis workers and daily wagers which have been held for 21 months. We also want the government to regularize the services of all the employees who have served department for over a decade now,” Sajad Ahmad Parray, a protester told GNS.
He said that the policy formed under SRO-520 for the daily wagers was not being implemented by the government due to unknown reasons. He said that Commissioner Secretary PHE, Advisor to the Governor and the Chief Secretary only gave the employees ‘false assurances’.Parray said that over 10,000 employees serving the department were facing hardships due to the long-pending wages.Sajad Ahmad, another protester told GNS that their personal lives were suffering because of the delay in the release of the wages from last 21 months.“Irony is that even on the auspicious occasion of Eid, our salary was not released. Our employees don’t have money to buy medicines for the ailing members. The education of our kids is suffering. This is the height of insensitivity,” Ahmad said.Before dispersing peacefully, the protesters said that if the government doesn’t release their wages in two days, the employees we will hold a mega shutdown on September 27 and lock all big and small offices of the department. (GNS)