TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Women employees from the 108 employees union have claimed that when they were protesting near Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar’s function at Usgao, they were allegedly asked by him why they were sitting in the sun and that it would be difficult for them to find suitable grooms, if they developed a dark complexion.
Anusha Sawant, one among those protesting for over a month, followed other union members to Usgao where Parsekar was distributing laptops to school students. “He saw us and asked us, why we chose to sit in the sun and darken our complexion. He then said, it would be difficult to get suitable men to marry us if we turned dark,” Sawant said.
The group which had initially planned on sitting outside the CM’s residence as part of their protest, got wind that the chief minister was in Usgao. “We decided to follow him to the event with the hopes that we would be able to discuss the issue of non working ambulances and regularisation of our services. He, however, didn’t hear us out and spoke at length,” union General Secretary Sagar Prabhudesai said. He also added that they now plan on following the chief minister wherever he goes, till he hears them out.
Speaking to media persons, RTI activist Rajan Ghate, showed his support to the youth saying he would join them and demanded that their issues be heard.
Meanwhile, Reshma Gaonkar, one of the first to go on hunger strike, was admitted to a private hospital and is in a critical condition after she began vomiting and suffered a drop in blood pressure as the strike entered its thirteenth day.
Mohammed Rafi, head of operations at GVK EMRI issued a statement saying union leaders were misleading the employees and distorting facts and changing the demands.
“They do not have clarity about their actual demands and so the issues are not getting resolved. Their only demand seems to be that women employees must not be made to work in night shifts. The fact is that in all 17 states where we are operating 108 services, women employees work in night shifts and they are informed at the time of joining itself and they have agreed to this,” Rafi said.
