Suspended employee threatens self-immolation

PATIALA, Sept 29: The 10-day-old agitation of Municipal Corporation employees took a dramatic turn today with the chairman of six Municip...

PATIALA, Sept 29: The 10-day-old agitation of Municipal Corporation employees took a dramatic turn today with the chairman of six Municipal Employee Unions and regional president of the Municipal Workers8217; Union, Pushpinder Pathak, who is also one of the four suspended employees, announcing to immolate himself if the state government failed to revoke the suspension orders of the four union leaders soon.

Pathak announced this while talking to Newsline, soon after attending the protest march-cum-rally organised here under the command of the Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh BMS in front of the Deputy Commissioner8217;s office. He said the state government has adopted an indifferent attitude towards the demands raised by the Municipal Employees Union, due to which resentment is brewing among the cadre of the Union, not only in Patiala, but also in nearby Municipal Councils like Rajpura, Nabha and Samana.

He said the final decision regarding intensifying the agitation will be taken tomorrow, with the conclusion of the first phase of the agitational programme. He said the leadership may consider starting an indefinite hunger strike and burning effigies.

Pathak said it seemed the state government had taken this issue very lightly and had not made any sincere efforts in solving the issue. He said though the government had had two-three rounds of talks with deputations of the Union, as well as the Sangh, in the past 13 days, the matter was still pending. He said the representatives of the government wanted the suspended employees to first tender apologies for their conduct.

While addressing the rally, Baldev Krishan Sharma, senior vice-president of BMS, Punjab, said if the state government failed to take any concrete step to revoke the suspension, the Sangh will be left with no other option but to intensify the agitation. He added that the Sangh will not leave any stone unturned to get the suspension of all the leaders revoked.

After the rally, the leaders of BMS presented a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner, demanding revoking of the suspension of four employees. The leaders of the Sangh reiterated that the agitation would continue till the suspensions were revoked.

Meanwhile, official work at the Municipal Corporation here came to a stand still today due to the protest march and rally.

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It may be mentioned here that the agitation started on September 17 with the visit of the deputy director of local bodies in the MC to check the attendance of employees. The deputy director reportedly tried to mark some employees involved in a religious function as absent. The leaders then tried to snatch the attendance register from the deputy director. The employees alleged that the deputy director had also misbehaved with a woman leader and also tried to interfere in the affairs of the MC. Those placed on suspension include Pushpinder Pathak, Vijay Sharma, Sukhwinder Singh and Ashok Vig.

Meanwhile, Prem Paharia, president of Employees Union, Bharat Lal, a leader of Employees Union, Nabha MC, Roshan Lal, chairman of Municipal Council Employees Union, Rajpura, and another leader Chander Mohan, from Samana Municipal Council, have extended their support to their counterparts here and threatened to launch an agitation in their respective areas if the suspension of the four employees was not revoked soon.