GISF jawans on indefinite strike from Monday
AHMEDABAD: The security cover at all check posts in the state as well as vital installations like courts and dams may fall off after October 10. More than 3,000 jawans of Gujarat Industrial Security Force (GISF) who guard government buildings have announced an indefinite strike.
Protesting low wages and decision to keep them out from the recent bonus and hikes announced by the state government, the jawans along with their family members will organize a mass rally from Ahmedabad to Gandhinagar on Monday.
The state government had offered doles to state employees, which will cost the state exchequer Rs 2,250 crore. The announcement was made on the occasion of completion of a decade of Narendra Modi-led government. Modi government announced that it will pay cash for this year’s arrears of the sixth pay commission to nearly 4.53 lakh government employees and 3.47 lakh pensioners.
“More than 5,000 people including the jawans and their family members will walk till Gandhinagar from Ahmedabad on Monday. The jawans who aren’t given any weekly offs or sick leaves and are paid a mere Rs 4,500, have been fighting for their rights for the last 14 years. Even in the recent sops, they were kept out, which has agitated the jawans who will go on an indefinite strike from October 10,” said Amrish Patel, secretary, Gujarat Federation of Trade Unions.
Patel said that the jawans provide security cover to remote corners of the state, including Narmada canals and check posts, where without any weapons or support they stand guard.