The leaders of Uttarakhand Congress have extended their support to the agitation of Uttarakhand Purva sainik kalyan Nigam Limited (UPNL) workers. While the former chief minister and general secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Harish Rawat warned the state government against taking any punitive action on the agitating workers the Vice President of Uttarakhand Congress Surya Kant Dhasmana sat on a fast in their support. Rawat took to social media to express his solidarity with the agitating workers. The former CM said that it has come to his notice that the state government is planning to remove the UPNL workers from their jobs. He warned that any such act on the part of government would be strongly opposed by the Congress party. Rawat also declared that he would sit on a fast at his residence on March 18 in support of the UPNL workers.
Meanwhile Surya Kant Dhasmana sat on a fast for three hours in support of the agitating UPNL workers. The Congress leader arrived at the ‘Protest site’ at 11 am on the day and sat on fast till 2 pm. Speaking on the occasion, he said that in the last four years of its rule the BJP government of the state has taken no heed of the problems of more than 22000 UPNL workers. He said that the High Court (HC) in the year 2018 had directed the state government to implement same work same pay principle, phased induction of UPNL workers in the government jobs and non deduction of GST and service tax from the salaries of these workers but instead of implementing these orders the government filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court (SC) on this order. The Congress leader added that the rate of unemployment in the state has reached 26 percent which is highest in the country. He assured that when the Congress government would come to power in the state in 2022; it would render justice to the UPNL workers.
Congress leader Mahesh Joshi also sat on fast with Dhasmana on the occasion.
Wednesday, 17 March 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
