Sanyukt Karamchari Morcha holds protest rally in support of demands.

Sanyukt Karamchari Morcha holds protest rally in support of demands.

Demand raised for one-time regularization of contract employees who have completed 10 years of service.

Demand raised for outsourcing recruitment through a government agency instead of the GeM portal.

Chandigarh 5 August ( Ranjeet Singh Dhaliwal ) : Today, under the banner of the Sanyukt Karamchari Morcha , various federations held a protest rally at the Sector 23 ground in support of their long-pending demands. Conveners, executive members, and employees from various employee organizations and federations participated in the protest rally. Addressing the rally, representatives from various federations accused the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation administration of adopting an indifferent attitude towards resolving the employees' long-standing demands. They stated that numerous issues concerning regular, contractual, outsourced, and daily-wage employees, as well as pensioners and other categories, have remained unresolved for a long time and require immediate attention. Demands raised during the rally included: one-time regularization of daily-wage, contractual, and other temporary employees who have completed 10 years of service; recruitment through a centralized government agency instead of the GeM portal; 'equal pay for equal work'; withdrawal of new labor laws; halting employee retrenchment in the name of rationalization; revocation of ESMA (Essential Services Maintenance Act) in the CTU and Electricity Department; cancellation of termination and retirement orders for crèche workers; withdrawal of FIRs registered against CTU Workers' Union leaders; adjustment of employees transferred from the Electricity Department to a private company into other administration departments; full implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations; and payment of arrears for allowances, including MACP. 

Key demands raised included raising the ESI and bonus ceiling to ₹50,000; implementing CGHS medical facilities; providing jobs to dependents of deceased employees without any ceiling; increasing the honorarium for Anganwadi, crèche, and mid-day meal workers and implementing DC rates; reinstating outsourced employees and conductors removed from Public Health, Fire, Smart City, and CTU departments; cancelling the decision to hand over Horticulture Department parks and green belts to private societies via MoUs; to  stop privatization of Street Lights and not to rationalize outsourcing workers,restoring the provision of uniforms, oil, and soap for field staff; granting an unconditional 2% hike in DC rates for all outsourced employees who have completed five years of service; and providing government housing to contractual employees.

Representatives from various bodies—including the Federation of UT & MC Employees, UT Subordinate Federation, Joint Employees Welfare Association, Joint Action Committee of UT & MC Employees, and All Contractual Karamchari Sangh Bharat —participated in the rally. Notable attendees included Gopal Dutt Joshi, Surmukh Singh, Sukhbir Singh, Ranjit Singh Hans, Bipin Sher Singh, Rajendra Katoch, Harkesh Chand, Ravindra Bindu, Harpal Singh, Hardeep Singh, Sohan Singh, Bihari Lal, Budhram, Surinder Singh, Dharmendra Singh Rahi, Sarpanch Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Kamal Kumar, Raja Ram, Kuldeep Kumar, Ranbir Rana, Birendra Singh, Dhyan Singh, Nasib Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Ashok Kumar, Satish Kumar, Ramswaroop, and Jasveer Singh.At the conclusion of the rally, the Joint Employees' Front (Sanyukt Karamchari Morcha) warned that if the employees' demands were not resolved promptly and a meeting with the Chandigarh Administration and the Administrator was not granted, protests and sit-in demonstrations would be intensified in the coming days.