STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: All J and K SRTC Volunteer Retired Employees Association (VREA) on Monday staged a protest at Exhibition Ground here, against previous State Government for not clearing their pending dues.
Addressing the protesting employees, Union President, Dev Raj Bali, criticised the previous government for duping them by denying all benefits. “We took VRS/GHS on the assurances that our dues will be released within 60 days but we are struggling for the same for last so many years and in this struggle many of us have passed away” he alleged adding they have been cheated by the government by giving them VRS/GHS on false promises. “It is very strange that 126 slabs of COLA and also Sixth Pay Commission benefit was given to the in-service employees of State SRTC whereas same has been denied to over 700 VRS/GHS employees despite the fact that they were in service at the time of implementation of Sixth Pay Commission”, said Bali.
He appealed to Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to kept their issue in the next Cabinet meeting and clear their liability in full. Their other demands include release of Sixth Pay Commission arrears from 1st January, 2006, Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) from the year 1999, pension benefits and implementation of SRO-43. In the protest among others present were Prem Nath, Balwinder Singh, Surinder Singh, B.B Sharma, Sain Mohd, Gulshan Singh and Ehsan Elahi.
