Seek immediate restoration of SHGE scheme
Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, June 23: The Self Help Group of Engineers today staged a protest demanding immediate rollback of the order by which the Self Help Group of Engineers Scheme was abolished by the Government while as appealing to the leaders to raise their issue during the proposed All Party Meeting (APM) with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
State President of the Association, Syed Pervaiz Hussain told the media persons at the press Enclave that they were working under the scheme for the last 20 years and that it was abolished in a jiffy without any consultation in August 2020
“It was an Atmanirbhar scheme and after it was abolished, we came out of streets demanding justice, following which, LG Manoj Sinha formed a committee headed by Advisor Bhatnagar. The committee has met few times, but nothing has been decided as of now,” he said.
He said that there are around 15000 people associated with the scheme and that their families are on the verge of starvation.
He said that the Association is hopeful that the J&K political leaders who are going to meet the PM will raise their issues along with the issues faced by the casual labourers during the meeting.
“We would like to request to the leadership of J&K to convey our pain and suffering to the Prime Minister and Home Minister during the meeting,” the association said.
They said that as the unemployment rate is growing day by day, lakhs of people have lost their jobs; the unemployment rate in J&K is around six lakhs.
“Present circumstances indicate that there is a need of such job oriented and Atmanirbar schemes, Our Prime Minister always says that we want to make India Atmanirbar, and our Scheme was also an Atmanirbar Scheme,” they said.
They said that the height of the injustice is such that the scheme is up and running in Ladakh while the administration of the J&K UT has gone ahead and abolished the scheme.
“So far, they have been telling us that it has all got delayed due to the pandemic, but now, we feel that if the Government is sincere, they should now decide in our favour without any delay,” they said, adding that otherwise they will be forced to gherao Raj Bhavan as a mode of protest.
They appealed to the Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, Advisor to LG R. R. Bhatnagar and the Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Metha to restore the Self Help Group of Engineers Scheme at the earliest without any further delay.
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