Tuesday was yet another day of protests by associations and groups of individuals representing various sections which have been agitating for years in the hope of that the elusive promises, which were repeatedly made, would soon be implemented.
The protests were organised at a designated place, facilitated by the district administration, near the Suvarana Vidhana Soudha where the 10-day monsoon session of the State legislature is in progress since June 29.
A large number of workers serving in various municipalities in the State, who staged the protest under the banner of Karnataka Rajya Municipal Karmikara Sangha (affiliated to CITU), asked the government to regularise their services.
They submitted a set of nine demands, which included abolishing the exploitative contract system, regularising services of the workers who have been serving for the past 20 years on contract basis for low wages, equal pay for equal work, weekly off to daily wage workers and appointment of more workers considering the population growth in cities and towns.
Karnataka State Construction Workers Union (affiliated to CITU) submitted a set of 17 demands including the release of benefits offered by the Karnataka Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board within one month after receipt of the application, issue of identity cards, withdrawal of cases registered by Belagavi police against the workers for staging a protest in front of SVS last year and so on. Bharat Ratna Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Yuva Manch asked the government to prevent encroachment of the graveyard reserved for SC/ST communities in Kangral Galli.
Amidst these protest, the one staged by Master’s Merchants Association was the only case where the government responded positively. Urban Development Minister Vinay Sorske invited the association members and promised to do justice by distributing alternate sites to 30 families which lost their sites under road-widening work along the Congress road in the city 20 years ago.
