Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Agitations galore in front of Secretariat

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: While the whole city slipped into a relaxed, festive mood on Thiruvonam day on Tuesday, the area in front of the Secretariat gates was a beehive of activity. Various organisations staged dharnas and hunger strikes to highlight their demands.

Arrack workers under the banner of the Kerala Samsthana Kalluchethu Vyavasaya Videsamadya Thozhilali Union (UTUC) staged a hunger strike demanding festival relief and rehabilitation of workers rendered jobless by the arrack ban. They also demanded debt relief, withdrawal of the arrack ban and a new liquor policy. The workers sat in rows on the footpath in front of banana leaves laid with soil. RSP State secretariat member S. Sathyapalan inaugurated the agitation.

The State committee of the School Paachaka Thozhilali Sanghatana staged a hunger strike urging the Government and the Education Department to sanction pay hike and clearance of arrears for over 15,000 workers engaged in cooking noon meals in various aided, LP and UP schools. The Kerala State Retired Teachers and Employees' Union held a hunger strike demanding fixation of new pension scale for those who retired in the 2002-2004 period.

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