Srinagar: Police in Srinagar on Saturday used water canon to disperse a protest march by state government employees and also arrested dozens of agitating employees.
Scores of protesting employees started a march towards Raj Bhavan in Srinagar. Police in full riot gear intercepted the marchers, using coloured water canon discharges to disperse them.
As the protesting employees kept on regrouping, the police arrested dozens of them and took them to the nearest police station.
The employees are demanding raising their retirement age from the present 58 years to 60, regularization of daily wage/ad hoc/contractual employees, and removal of anomalies in the pay structures.
The employees stayed away from their offices on Saturday in provincial and district headquarters as part of their three-day protest programme to press for their demands.
A senior state government official said the employees` strike call had partially affected the working of the government offices in the Kashmir Valley on Saturday.
The state government is yet to take a final call on the employees` demands while the employees claim the government signed an agreement with them Sept 15 last year, agreeing to fulfil their demands.
The government has said the employees must shun the agitational path as their demands are under its active consideration.
IANS
