Amritsar: Federation protests in front of minister Harbhajan Singh ETO's residence

Amritsar, January 21

Seeking regularisation of contractual employees and those hired through third party and reintroduction of old pension scheme, members of the Democratic Mulazam Federation (DMF) held a sit-in in front of the residence of Cabinet Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO for nearly two hours here on Sunday.

Ignoring the freezing cold conditions, protesters held a massive district-level rally from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm in front of the minister’s house. They handed over a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to a tehsildar at the conclusion of the rally.

Protesters included a large number of ASHA, mid-day meal, Forest Department, sanitation and canal workers and teachers from across the district.

DMF leaders Germanjit Singh Chhajalwadi, Ashwani Awasthi, Paramjit Kaur Mann, Mamata Sharma, Rachpal Singh Jodhangari and Sukhdev Singh Umranangal addressed protesters. In their address, they alleged that CM Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government reneged on promises made with employees and workers of Punjab before assuming the power.

They said mid-day meal and ASHA workers and facilitators were working on meagre allowances for a long time. The Aam Aadmi Party’s guarantee of immediately doubling the allowances proved to be an election gimmick, they added.

They claimed that in spite of the massive publicity to regularise those employees, who were hired on contract or through outsourced companies, not a single such employee had been confirmed yet. They alleged that promise to restore the old pension scheme of two lakh employees recruited after January 2004 had been put on backburner. They demanded that ASHA and mid-day meal workers should be paid

Rs 18,000 per month as per the basic slab of the Sixth Pay Commission.