Patiala, June 26:- Under the banner of Class Fourth Government Employees Union Punjab (1680), fourth class employees of government and semi-government departments, permanent and casual employees, mid-day meal workers and male and female employees of the health department staged a massive protest dharna against the Punjab government, Health Minister, Education Minister, Local Government Minister and Finance Minister. After this, a protest march was taken out to Leela Bhawan Chowk and slogans were raised against the government.
Three different memorandums were submitted to the government during the dharna. The union leaders demanded that contract, outsourced, part-time sanitation workers, sewermen and other fourth class employees be regularized without any delay and the contractual system be completely abolished.
They demanded that the minimum wage be fixed at Rs 40 thousand per month keeping in mind the inflation. This wage should also be applied to mid-day meal workers, ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, anti-larva (breeding) workers and other scheme workers. Along with regularizing their services and providing all the necessary facilities.
The union also demanded the implementation of the minimum wage law for the sanitation workers and watchmen working in government schools of Punjab, providing uniforms and all other necessary facilities.
On this occasion, a separate demand letter was also sent by the Punjab Subordinate Federation (1680), in which it was demanded to immediately restore the old pension scheme, pay dearness allowance and its arrears in cash by June 30 as per the decisions of the honorable high courts. Apart from this, it was also demanded to immediately release the salaries of the employees of the forest department that have been stopped for three months and the salaries of the mid-day meal workers that have been pending for four months.
The union leaders have written to the Health Minister demanding that the lists of all the raw workers be updated and their services regularized. They announced that now the raw workers will not sit silent and will fully support the joint struggles. They said that on July 10, a protest will be held in front of the Director Animal Husbandry Office, Mohali to show their anger towards the government and the department.
Today's protest was addressed by Darshan Singh Lubana, Deep Chand Hans, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Golu, Inderpal Walia, Gautam Bhardwaj, Lakhvir Singh, Ram Lal Rama, Shiv Charan, Ram Prasad Sahota, Charanjit Mardapur, Satnam Singh, Dharmendra, Gurinder Guri, Raj Jodha, Karamjit Tina, Kala Singh, Tarlochan Mandoli, Darshan Singh Malewal, Harbhim Singh, Hardeep Singh, Madan Lal Nabha, Ajay Kumar Nabha, Ajay Kumar Sanour, Raj Kumar Sanour, Sarabjit Singh, Jaswinder Singh and Satnarayan Goni, among other leaders.