Unions demand right to bail for jailed Maruti workers

GURGAON: The second anniversary of the Maruti Manesar episode of July 18, 2012 saw trade union members from across Haryana come out in numbers to attend a commemorative rally in old Gurgaon on Friday. The procession of workers equipped with placards and banners was led to the bureaucratic centre of Gurgaon near the mini secretariat amid heavy police presence.
All local trade unions — politically allied or affiliated to various manufacturing units —were part of Friday's demonstration. Their agenda, the participants said, was to generate popular attention for the ?greater cause of justice'. At the end of the demonstration, a memorandum of demands was handed over to the district's deputy commissioner, Shekhar Vidyarthi.
"Our memorandum makes the same demands that it did last year. We want the release of innocent workers who were jailed in this case. We also want the company to reinstate all those workers who were sacked after the incident in 2012," said Kuldeep Janghu, general secretary of the Maruti Udyog Kamgar Union.
Around 300 policemen were on duty around Rajiv Chowk on Friday. Senior police officers also visited Maruti's Manesar plant on Thursday to ensure that all the security arrangements were in place. More than 400 cops were deployed in Industrial Model Township Manesar by late Thursday evening, including added personnel called in from Bhondsi and Madhuban.
"More than 300 cops were deployed in Gurgaon during the procession. Our cops were ready to deal with any untoward incident but things went by peacefully," said Vivek Sharma, joint commissioner of police.
"There were around 40 union bodies in total, and all were in support of our main demand that the jailed workers be released. How is it possible that all these men have as yet been denied even a bail? This is entirely unfair, and we want the authorities to look into this matter without bias," said Pawan Kumar, the newly-elected president of the workers' union at Maruti's Manesar plant.