Labour protest over wages turns violent in Dehradun; over 500 booked

Dehradun: A protest by labourers over wages and overtime pay turned violent at the Selaqui industrial estate on Friday evening after workers from several factories blocked a national highway and allegedly pelted stones at police personnel. Police later registered an FIR against 500-600 unidentified people, including some social media influencers and local political leaders. The protest comes amid recent labour unrest in Noida over wage-related issues.

Police said workers gathered in large numbers outside factories in the industrial area and blocked the highway while demanding a wage hike, disrupting traffic for some time.

Selaqui SHO Lokpal Parmar said police lodged the FIR after taking suo motu cognisance of the incident. “Preliminary investigation suggests that workers came out of factories demanding an increase in wages to Rs 20,000 from the existing Rs 13,000. The protest was triggered after some social media influencers allegedly spread rumours that the govt had raised the minimum wage to Rs 20,000, which was not true,” he said.

The SHO added that when police and officials tried to persuade the protesters to clear the blockade, some members of the crowd began pelting stones, injuring a few personnel.

“Police then carried out a brief lathicharge to disperse the crowd and restore traffic movement. An FIR has been registered under relevant sections of the BNS and the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act against 500-600 unidentified persons, including labourers, social media influencers and local politicians. Further investigation is underway,” he said.

Meanwhile, state labour commissioner Prakash Chandra Dumka dismissed rumours of a wage hike and blamed “outsiders with vested interests” for provoking the agitation.

“The minimum wage in Uttarakhand is Rs 13,018 for non-engineering workers and Rs 13,800 for engineering workers, which is higher than neighbouring states such as Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. No govt notification has increased it to Rs 20,000. If labourers have grievances, they should raise them before the labour department,” Dumka said.