ICHALKARANJI/MUMBAI, SEPT 18: Nearly 50,000 powerloom workers in Ichalkaranji paid a heavy price while agitating for minimum wages and a regular eight-hour-job when they were allegedly beaten up by the local police on August 18. Their crime reportedly was of unveiling an Annabhau Sathe statue - that had been in wraps since 1995 - Kolhapur and garlanding it. Word spread that the statue was desecrated, after which the police reportedly beat them.At present, a settlement of sorts has been worked out between the loom owners and the workers where their monthly wages have been hiked by a measly Rs 150. While earlier their wages were around Rs 1,800, it will now be Rs 1,950, says CITU (Centre for Indian Trade Unions) general secretary, Vivek Monteiro. None of their demands like an eight hour day, or minimum wages have been met with.Locals allege that the entire episode was a well-orchestrated operation to bash up leaders of the agitation against loom owners. Workers at Ichalkaranji, the second biggest powerloom town in the state, have been agitating for minimum wages and reduction of work hours from 12 to eight. Having failed to get state government intervention on the demands, the workers decided to go on an indefinite strike from August 14.Narrating the events at the meeting on August 18, Suryaji Salunkhe, one of the leaders of the agitating workers said, ``I garlanded the statue of Annabhau Sathe before addressing the meeting.'' He claims that Milind Bharambe, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Amar Ingle, a police inspector and a posse of policemen were present at the site. Local residents corroborate this. ``Why did the police stay mute witness if I was desecrating the statue right under their nose?'' he asks.Later, the CITU office was ransacked by miscreants and five workers were beaten. Salunkhe, who had been threatened by the miscreants, called up Ingle for protection. Ingle reportedly told him he was coming over. ``He asked me to accompany him to the police station saying I would be safer there and I went in good faith,'' remembers Salunkhe. But once in the police station, Bharambe reportedly started beating him.``He, Ingle and three other constables began kicking me around in the abdomen and repeatedly hit me with their batons,'' Salunkhe recalls. Several other workers were reportedly brought into the police station, stripped and brutally beaten.``It was like the cops were possessed'', recalls Salunkhe. They next descended on Aasra Nagar, a settlement of loom workers and reportedly began beating up everyone in sight. ``People who tried to shut themselves found their doors being kicked open as the constables went around attacking women and children,'' says Shobha Nathuram Wakhe, a resident.However, the police refute the charges and claim they were, in fact, trying to stem a riot. SP R K Padmanabhan, while admitting that the police had to resort to lathi charge at Aasra Nagar, said that they had to quell a mob which was pelting stones. He says 11 constables suffered serious injuries and that a jeep was totally destroyed by miscreants in the area.Refuting allegations that the police had thrashed the Samiti leaders on the loom owners' behest, Padmanabhan argues that the issue of brutalisation by the police was brought up only after CPM leader Ahilya Rangnekar visited Ichalkaranji on August 20. ``Not only did they not raise the issue but they also categorically told the judge when presented in court that they were not ill-treated in any way by the police,'' he says.On 21st, though, a complaint was made to the local judge following which an inquiry has been instituted, and Ingle has been asked to go on leave. Meanwhile, loom owners dissociate themselves from the attack. ``The workers should know better than to start demanding implementation of the minimum wage package at a time when the looms are shutting down due to the slack market,'' said a loom owner.
