The Congress party staged a protest in Panchkula on Wednesday demanding the regularisation of all personnel recruited under the Kaushal Rozgar Nigam (HKRN).
Several Congress workers who reached the HKRN office were stopped by police barricades. They raised slogans and voiced their demands.
Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress state president Rao Narendra Singh led the protest. Party MPs Deepender Hooda, Varun Chaudhary, Satpal Brahmachari and Karamvir Baudh; organiser Chander Mohan; and convenor Ashok Arora were present.
Deputy CLP leader Aftab Ahmed, actor Raj Babbar, along with senior leaders and party workers, were also present on the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Hooda said the BJP government was exploiting the youth through the HKRN.
“We demand that all employees recruited via HKRN be regularised in government service and granted equal pay scales, Dearness Allowance (DA), promotion avenues, reservation benefits, and retirement benefits. Also, all future appointments should be made through regular recruitment processes,” he said.
Hooda said the government’s primary duty was to conduct regular recruitment, yet the BJP government was promoting the contract system by filling even gazetted posts through the HKRN. He added that this practice was indirectly undermining reservation provisions for Dalits, backward classes and the poor.
The former CM claimed that during the Congress government’s tenure, the number of government posts had been increased to 4 lakh. However, the BJP reduced this figure to just 2.5 lakh.
He said the Congress was not making a new demand, rather, the BJP itself had announced the regularisation of 125,000 skilled contractual workers to garner their votes during the Assembly elections.
