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Kashmir Govt paralyzed for second day

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Srinagar, India, Feb 11, IRNA -- Government function throughout the state of Jammu and Kashmir remained paralyzed for the second consecutive day on Wednesday as government employees stayed away from work.

They are demanding the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission report, enhancement of retirement age and other issues.

As government offices, and even essential services, came to a grinding halt, thousands of state employees took out processions in Srinagar and Jammu, and held demonstrations and rallies in support of their demands.

There were reports that even essential services were severely affected.

In Srinagar, thousands of employees gathered under union banners to take out marches to the central city.

The demonstrators, which included a large number of women employees as well, carried placards with slogans demanding the implementation of the pay panel report and end to injustice.

The processions wound their way through various parts of the city and converged on Lal Chowk via the Budshah Bridge, and staged a sit-in at the city center.

The demonstrators said that the government was being indifferent and not fulfilling demands despite repeated chances given by employees.

Government work came to a halt in Jammu also where offices remained closed on account of the strike, and the call received an overwhelming response in the Ladakh region as well, reports said.

Describing today's strike as successful, the chief of the Employees' Joint Action Committee, Abdul Qayoom Wani, who is also a member of the Joint Consultative Committee, an amalgam of employee unions, told IRNA that the response to the strike call was a major victory as government personnel in Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh had responded to it overwhelmingly.

He said that strikers from Kashmir would head for Jammu where nearly 50,000 employees are expected to march on Wednesday and lay siege to the civil secretariat, the office of the chief minister.

He said that even essential services had been included in today's strike and only emergency services in hospitals had been exempted.

He, however, said that he called up hospital administrations later to give some measure of relaxation to essential services.

"The government is willfully forcing employees to take to the streets, though the latter do not favor a confrontation in view of the difficulties to the public," Wani said.

"Wednesday's program will be final and decisive," he said, adding that the stir would be intensified if the government persisted in ignoring employees' demands.