By IANS,
Srinagar : Hundreds of government employees held a protest march to the civil secretariat here Tuesday, demanding higher salaries and better designations. Police used batons and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators.
The protesters wanted a pay hike, redesignation of Class four employees like orderlies and an increase in the superannuation age from the present 58 to 60 years.
They were intercepted by the police at Jahangir Chowk, barely 100 metres from the civil secretariat.
“Police used batons and high speed water jets to stop our protest march. Dozens of employees have been taken into custody while nearly half a dozen sustained injuries during the police action,” said one of the protesters.
Government employees in the state have been on a path of confrontation with the administration as they claim their demands, which Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier agreed to meet, were still hanging fire.