Employees of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) Thursday held protest at SMC headquarters here demanding release of wages of consolidated workers.
Around 5,000 consolidated workers are without wages for twomonths. Almost, all SMC employee associations have joined the protest andextended support to the demand.
Protestors assembled in morning at SMC lawns and raisedpro-justice slogans. Later, in afternoon, they intensified protests andannounced stopping of all operation including sanitation and locking of wardoffices from Friday till their demand is met.
President SMC Field Staffers, Choudhary Mehraj-ul-Din Bujja,who announced complete strike said, “consolidated workers come from poorfamilies. They have to support families. In absence of wages, they aresuffering. Some of our colleagues are not able to purchase life saving drugsfor their old aged parents, their wards are asked to leave classrooms afterthey failed to deposit tuition fee,” he said.
He added that the association is aware about inconvenienceto general public due to strike. “We apologize for that, but the matterpertains to hundreds of families whose only source of income has been put onhold,” he said.
“There has been no attempt by authorities to pacify theprotestors. This forced us to intensifyprotests and call for complete strike from Friday,” he said.