Demanding that their pending salaries be released, data operators-cum-clerks working at various gram panchayats in Raichur district staged a protest at Basaveshwar Circle here on Monday.
Traffic movement was disrupted for some time when the protesters formed a human chain blocking roads leading to the Railway Station and the Central Bus Stand and also various localities from these areas.
Nearly 180 employees, working in different gram panchayats for the past nine years, are discharging duties without salaries for the past 30 months and their demand for pending salaries has remained unattended to despite their repeated requests.
These employees are facing financial difficulties to meet family needs, including school fees of their children. Therefore, the State government should take immediate steps to release the pending salaries and also take an initiative to deposit monthly salaries before the fifth of every calendar month, they said. Later, they withdrew protest and allowed vehicles to move after the officials concerned assured them of solving their problem at the earliest.
Bhimareddy Patil, Tayanna, Razzak, Channabasav, Mallikarjun and others participated.