Ropar, October 14
Hundreds of workers of Punjab National Fertilisers and Chemical Limited (PNFC) along with their families, gheraoed the Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Madan Mohan Mittal, here today.
Mr Mittal was here on a visit to his constituency. It is for the second time that the workers of the closed PNFC unit have gheraoed the minister since the lock out in the unit on August 28. Earlier this month when the workers had gheraoed the minister, he had assured them that they would be paid six months’ wages by September 30.
Today when the workers of the PNFC learnt that the minister was camping at the Sutlej Sadan Rest House of the BBMB, they along with their families laid a siege to the rest house. Though leaders of the workers, including Mr Shamsher Singh and Mr Dharam Pal Bhangar, held talks with Mr Mittal, the impasse continued.
The workers demanded that they should be paid their dues there and then. They did not allow any vehicle to leave the rest house from 9 a.m. to about 12.30 p.m. After the DSP, Anandpur Sahib, arrested the workers squatting outside the rest house, they were huddled into two trucks and carried to an undisclosed destination.
The workers raised slogans against the Punjab Government, the minister and the police. The DSP, Jagdish Singh Khaira, told this correspondent that after all methods to persuade the workers for lifting the siege failed, they were arrested under Section 180, IPC.
Earlier, the employee leaders of the PNFC, talking to this correspondent, alleged that since most workers ousted from the PNFC did not have any other source of income, the non-payment of dues by the government had driven them to the brink of starvation. The workers had not been paid since September, 1999.
