Port Blair, Jan 06: The Andaman Sarvajanik Nirman Vibhag Mazdoor Sangh (ASNVMS), affiliated to CITU, has conducted a territory-wide agitation from 2nd January, 2020 in front of the offices of the APWD in support of their demands.
At Port Blair, the mass demonstration was organized from 3.30 p.m. to 5 p.m. daily since 2nd January, 2020 in front of the office of the Chief Engineer, APWD in which hundreds of workers working in various Divisions of APWD at Port Blair and South Andaman participated. Addressing the workers at the venue of the mass demonstration, B. Chandrachoodan, President, ASNVMS criticized the A & N Administration for resorting to retrenchment of hundreds of daily rated workers who were working in the APWD for the last several years.
He said that the workers are being removed from service by the Administration under the control of BJP-led central government, without following provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.
“While workers are being dis-engaged, the government works of APWD are being given to contractors,” he said.
The demands raised during the agitation are: 1. Grant of 1/30th of pay plus DA scheme to daily rated mazdoors as per Order of Hon’ble High Court 2. Grant bonus to DRMs as per the order of the High Court, 3. Arrears of 1/30th of pay plus DA from initial engagement, 4. Deposit EPF contribution deducted from the workers, 5. Stop Corruption in APWD, 6. Regular Payment of wages for the transferred workers to other Departments and 7. Stop retrenchment of DRMs from APWD. Issues related to the All India Strike on 8th January, 2020 were also highlighted during the agitation. Shri BC Bhattacharjee, Vice President and Shri Ananda Rajan, Joint Secretary led the mass demonstration at Port Blair. The programme will conclude on 7th January, 2020.
Mass demonstration has been organized by APWD workers at Diglipur, Rangat, Kadamtala, Little Andaman, Katchal, Kamorta and Campbell Bay, etc with large participation of workers.
