Team Herald
PANJIM: The Bhartiya Kamgar Sena (BKS), a frontal organisation of Shiv Sena UBT, on Saturday held a protest against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state for imposing Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) on private pharmaceutical manufacturing companies.
Speaking to reporters, Goa Shiv Sena president Jitesh Kamat said, “The policy of the government is condemnable. First of all it is unable to provide jobs to youth and even if they manage to get it, then it is indirectly trying to harass them.”
“While we have been demanding for the last one year that ESMA be withdrawn, the government, on the contrary, has extended it. Now the question is where the workers will raise their voice if injustice is meted out to them,” he questioned.
BKS General Secretary Dr Raghunath Kuchik claimed that Goa is the only state where ESMA has been imposed on industrial workers and it has been done to silence the voice of the workers.
“The government is trying to snatch the rights which have been given to the workers by the Constitution,” he said. The BKS members demanded stopping of workplace harassment and clearing of long-pending dues, among other things, and shouted slogans against the government.
The Goa government had recently extended the Essential Services Maintenance Act for private pharmaceutical manufacturing companies for another six months. It was aimed at preventing pharma sector employees from going on strike or holding any form of protest.