Punjab police lathicharged employees of cooperative societies when they were protesting to get 37 of their colleagues released.
The 37 employees had been arrested during the Sangat Darshan programme of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal at Jangi Rana village after they had tried to disrupt the function to raise their demands.
Nearly 500 employees of the Co-operative Society Union had staged a protest near Baluana village on Bathinda-Maout road.
The employees of the co-operative societies were demanding regularization of jobs and grade pay as per rules. They also demanded leave and other benefits being extended to the employees of other government departments. They said the pay commission’s recommendation, implemented from January 1, 2006, was yet to be implemented in cooperative societies.