Shillong, May 12: Hundreds of plywood factory workers at Umiam Industrial Area have decided to stop their work following assault by NGOs comprising of KSU and other local pressures groups on Wednesday evening.

On Wednesday evening, a group of people comprising of different NGOs barged into the Century plywood factory and demanded the manager to show all the factory documents and asked all the workers from Assam and elsewhere to stand in line and show their identity cards and valid documents.

Despite showing all IDs and documents, the workers from Assam said they were assaulted by the NGOs members while the latter also allegedly took away valuables from their factories.

The enraged workers, who are demanding justice by strong action from the government against the NGOs, have halted their work and asked workers engaged in other factories in the area to stop all work till the matter is resolved.

There are around 7-8 plywood factories in the area and a cement factory with each employing around 200 workers. As of now, all factories in the area have stopped their work.

One of the workers said they were appalled by the fact that everything happened in front of the officials of the district administration, who were standing there and did nothing to stop the NGOs.

They questioned as to who had empowered the NGOs to check their personal and official documents whereas they have submitted all the necessary documents to the concerned authority and will submit the same as and when asked by the concerned authority.

They expressed that they don’t want to approach the local administration because their officials were at the scene when everything unfolded on Wednesday evening but did nothing, so they understand that they will not get justice and their issue will not be resolved at the local level.

They further said the local NGOs such as KSU and others constantly harass them and take away their stuff with complete impunity.

They have demanded want strong action from the government to stop this menace once and for all.

Till the time their demand is met, the workers are not willing to resume their work and are currently staging dharma infront of their factories.

At the same time, if this issue is stretched, they have warned of going to Assam on Friday, especially the Byrnihat area, and stop functioning of all factories where as well. At the same time, they have warned of taking even stronger and violent measures.