VASCO: The State government function of laying foundation stone for a market project at Headland Sada turned into battle ground on Thursday evening with 350-odd agitated workers from Western India Shipyard Limited (WISL), who were anxiously wanting to meet Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’ Souza, were stopped by the police some 200 meters away from the function venue and were not allowed them to meet him even after the function got over.
According to information, about 350-odd WISL workers, who have been facing severe hardships due to non-payment of several months’ salaries, decided to meet D’Souza who was the chief guest at the function.
The aim was to put forth their grievances before him with the hope that his intervention into the matter may resolve their long pending issue.
“With this idea in mind, we all assembled near the Sada junction with the hope that D’Souza would stop by and hear our grievances. But we were wrong. The police prevented us to go near the function venue,” said Devendra Shetye, joint treasurer of WISL Workers Union.
He further said, “As a strong police force had created human chain to prevent us from going near the function venue, we then requested the police to at least speak to Mamlatdar to communicate to D’Souza about our plea to meet him. It was communicated back to us that after the function, D’Souza would stop and meet us, however he went without meeting us which upset all of us and left the workers agitated.”
This led to chaos and even triggered anger among the agitating workers. The situation, however, was brought under the control by the police, though they shared heated arguments till all of them (workers and police) dispersed.
Meanwhile, adding insult to injury, Power Minister and Mormugao MLA Milind Naik in his speech indirectly warned the workers that he would not tolerate any dadagiri in future.
Feeling betrayed, the workers have now decided to hold a big agitation in Panjim soon.
