Wide-range protests were held against anti-people policies of the Indian authorities in parts of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The skilled and un-skilled laborers sat on a sit-in protest near the office of Super Highway in Jammu. After passing of deadline given by labour union to enroll the local youth in construction of the highway, a number of skilled and unskilled but unemployed workers staged the protest. They were raising slogans in favor of their demands. A union leader Isher Dass Khajuria widely condemned the attitude of the authorities for ignoring the local unemployed youth and giving employment to outsiders. Meanwhile, the Nursing staff of SKIMS appointed under the academic arrangement also staged a protest against the authorities saying that they were made to work without getting paid. Scores of nurses appeared in the press enclave, Srinagar, holding placards and raising slogans in favour of their demands which included the continuation of their services.

We are working as nursing staff under the academic arrangement in SKIMS. We have been working there for more than 18 months. Firstly, we got the extension of one year and then we were verbally told to work for 6 months more, however, for that, we did not get any approval from the authorities, Mehreen, one of the protesting nurses said. She said that their salaries for those six months were not released either. The Contingent Paid Workers (CPWs) of the Education Department staged a protest against the Finance Department for sitting on a file which was submitted to it by the School Education Department. Scores of such workers appeared in the press enclave, Srinagar and raised slogans against the authorities while warning that they will go for no pay and no work to press for the fulfilment of their demands.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-INP