TARN TARAN: On the call of Punjab State Ministerial Services Union, under the leadership of State President Gurnam Singh Virk, State General Secretary Tarsem Bhattal and State Chairman Raghbir Singh Badwal, thousands of ministerial workers from around 45 departments across Punjab took collective leave and participated in Tarn Taran.
After holding a rally in front of the District Administrative Complex, a protest march was started towards the residence of the Aam Aadmi Party candidate contesting the elections.
The employees participating in this protest were so angry and resentful that they crossed three barricades set up by the police administration on the way due to the anti-employee attitude of the Punjab government and the fact that none of the employees fulfilled their demands. A large number of police and CRPF were deployed by the government to stop the protest march. On crossing the third barricade, the police administration lathi-charged the employees participating in the peaceful protest march. The forcibly dragged the employees and threw them into buses. This caused scratches to many employees, their clothes were torn, buttons were broken. In protest, the employees sat on the road and staged a dharna.
The employees arrested by the police were immediately released. State President Gurnam Singh Virk said that while thousands of employees from every district of Punjab had arrived in cars and buses in this rally and protest march, many local staff of Tarn Taran had closed their offices, conducted a lot of staff election rehearsals and even the clerical BLOs working at the booth level joined in it by taking their two-wheelers and four-wheelers under the leadership of District President Gursewak Singh, District General Secretary Angrej Singh and District President of the DC office Karminder Singh Cheema.
A state-level meeting will be held soon to outline the next strategy and the outline of the struggle.