Labour unions protest firing at IIT-Mandi workers

Tribune News Service

Mandi, July 2

Members of various trade unions and political organisations today took out a protest rally, seeking the arrest of contractor and his aides allegedly involved in the firing on workers at the under-construction site of the IIT at Kamand near here on June 20.

Four workers were injured when armed men of contractor Rajiv Sharma fired at the workers, who were protesting the non-payment of their monthly wages and EPF. Infuriated over the firing, the workers clashed with the armed men in which four men were killed and five injured.

Addressing the protesters, Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) state vice-president Rakesh Singha said labour laws were violated in the state and voices of workers were being suppressed.

For their rights, workers had been on a strike for 115 days in Kinnaur just three months ago, he said and added that contractor Rajiv Sharma, who was responsible for the firing on protesting workers at the IIT, was still at large.

He demanded that the contractor and his armed men should be arrested at the earliest and after cancelling his licence, he should be blacklisted.

Singha said the firing incident should be probed by a state-level team as they had no faith in the functioning of the Mandi police.

He said the Mandi SP was given different statements about the armed men of the contractor. How the police could say that the armed men were security guards when there was no list of employees and other staff of the contractor with Supreme Construction Company?, he said. On the other hand, parents of the deceased in Punjab had stated that their sons had gone for tourism business and were not security guards, he said.

Labourers and farmers demanded 70 per cent jobs for locals in the projects as per the policy of the government and immediate deposit of the pending EPF by the company.

Others who attended the rally include district CITU president Bhupender Singh, senior vice-president Paras Ram, vice-president Ravi Kant, secretary Rajesh Sharma, treasurer Gurudas Verma and YP Kapoor, district president, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Prakash Pant, AITUC, K Raju of the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Kushal Bhardwarj of the CPM, Desh Raj Sharma of the CPI, Hardev Thakur of the Himachal Kisan Sabha, Mahender Rana and Ajay Vaidya of the Naujawan Sabha, Jaiwanti and Geeta of the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, Kamand Workers union secretary Gulab Singh and vice-president Rita Devi.