Workers seek salaries for lockdown period, allege lathicharge by police

Noida: About 200 workers of a clothing manufacturing company who were protesting against non-payment of salaries during the lockdown period were allegedly lathicharged by police on Wednesday.
Two separate FIRs were registered against them at the Phase III police station -- one on the basis of a complaint by the company and the other by police.
Demanding that they be paid for the months between April and June, the workers, who gathered outside Orient Craft company in D block of Sector 63, alleged that they were unable to pay rent and their children’s school fees.
The protesters said that of the 5,000 people who were working in the two adjacent units of the firm, half had left for their villages.
“Some are looking for other work. We were paid only for March. When we went in April, we were told that the company will reopen in July. However, when we went today, we saw a notice saying it will open in September. We asked the firm to clarify when it will open or clear our dues. However, cops were on the spot and resorted to lathicharge at the behest of the firm,” Sunita, a worker, alleged.
Mira Devi, another worker, said as soon as workers tried to reason with the officials, police tried to detain one of them and take him to the Phase III police station, which further angered the protesters. “Police then resorted to lahticharge. Some women were beaten up too and one of them was hospitalised and got stitches,” she alleged.
Sunita said most of them felt ‘cheated and misled’ and went to the district magistrate’s office to lodge a complaint. “An official said the DM was unavailable and took our complaint,” she said.
The workers told TOI that most of them stayed in rented accommodations in Chotpur and Behrampur villages around Sector 63. “They should either give us work or whatever we are legally entitled to. We are poor and aren’t getting ration for free,” Babita, another protester, said.
The Phase III police booked several people, including nine named persons and about 100 unnamed ones, for lockdown violation under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) on charges that they violated prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC.
Another FIR was lodged under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 323 (physical assault), 504 (whoever intentionally insults, intending or knowing it to be likely that such provocation will cause him to break the public peace) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) against the workers on the complaint of the company DGM, Vijay Govind Saxena, who alleged the workers had resorted to violence.
“They attacked me when I went to mediate between them and the management. As a precaution, we had deployed cops but workers did not listen to them. I left the spot as my life was at risk,” he said, adding, “We are ready to pay them as per legal norms but running a factory is dependent on third party too. We are unsure when we can we restart operations.”