HASSAN: A large number of activists from the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and the district unit of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsh Samiti (DSS) staged a dharna in front of the City Cooperative Bank here on Tuesday.

They were protesting against the alleged anti-Dalit attitude of the bank in treating V. Pushpa, a Dalit woman, as a daily wage employee although the court had directed the bank to make her a permanent employee. General secretary of the district unit of the CITU Dharmesh and district conveners of the DSS H.K. Sandesh, Mahadev Atni and H.M. Prakash led the dharna. In their memorandum to Deputy Commissioner K.H. Aswathanarayana Gowda, they stated that Ms. Pushpa was working in Hassan City Cooperative Bank as a daily wage employee. Last year the Deputy Registrar for Cooperatives had directed the bank to treat her as a permanent employee. But she was still a daily wage employee getting Rs. 80 a day. They demanded that Ms. Pushpa be made a permanent employee from the date on which the Deputy Registrar had so directed. They have given the bank 15 days to set right the anomaly otherwise they would intensify their agitation.

Mr. Dharmesh accused the bank of suppressing the rights of workers and having scant respect for the judiciary. Therefore the bank should be superseded and an administrator should be appointed. Agitators sent copies of the memorandum to the Joint Registrar for Cooperatives, the Commission for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Welfare and the Civil Rights Enforcement Cell.

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