JKAP ask J&K Govt. to come clean on regularization of need based, casual labourers

SRINAGAR, June 13 (KNS): Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) senior leader and former legislator Zaffar Iqbal Manhas on Saturday demanded immediate regularization of need based and casual labourers working in different government departments for the last over a decade.

In a statement issued here, Manhas urged the government to frame a comprehensive policy in this regard and till then all pending wages of casual labourers, daily rated workers, need based, contractual and contingency paid employees  be released forthwith.

“Thousands of casual labourers, daily wagers and contingency paid employees working in different departments in J&K for the last over 15 years are awaiting their regularization.  I appeal, the Lieutenant Governor G.C Murmu to look into this critical humanitarian issue that is yet to be resolved despite repeated assurances by the successive governments in J&K,” the JKAP leader pleaded.

He said the LG led administration should talk to the representatives of the casual and daily rated workers and try to allay their apprehensions with regard to new recruitment policy.

“The administration must understand the difficulties faced by these workers who have no money to manage their day-to-day family affairs,” Manhas observed. He said that thousands of need based and casual labourers working in various departments for over a decade now feel cheated after the successive regimes in J&K failed to regularize their services from time to time.

“These hapless workers who are working in various engineering departments like Public Health Engineering,(PHE), Power Development Department (PDD), Roads and Buildings Department (R&B) etc have been running from pillar to post for their regularization but to no avail,” he added.

Manhas said that the representatives of these hapless workers are genuinely curious about the stand taken by the present dispensation with regard to their regularization as the process was set in motion by previous regimes and directives were issued to all heads of departments to frame the lists of eligible workers who had completed over 10 years services for their permanent absorption in respective departments.

Fed up with the insensitivity of the successive Governments, Manhas remarked that the daily wagers were genuinely left with no alternative but to resort to a confrontational path which is not in the interest of public welfare.

He said that all the casual labourers working in different Government departments are technical hands and they deserve to be paid the minimum wages as warranted under labour law. “The present government must pay and treat these daily rated workers at the same scale which is paid in other UTs of the country,” he demanded. Manhas said the J&K Government should come up with a comprehensive policy for regularization of these workers so that these people are not exploited any further.