Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 8: Announcing a march to the Chief Minister’s residence against the “injustice” on Monday, the J&K Casual and Daily Wagers Forum (JKCDF) today said that the J&K budget included provisions for various departments but nothing for the workers who ensure their functioning.
Addressing a press conference, JKCDF president Sajad Ahmed Parray said they had voted based on the manifesto presented before the elections, coupled with the assurance that the issues of daily wagers would be addressed.
“Earlier, on December 26, we met the CM and apprised him of our issues. We demanded regularization and the implementation of the Minimum Wages Act,” Parray said.
He added that the CM told them they would have to wait for regularization until Statehood is restored “but agreed to ensure compliance with the Minimum Wages Act. Even the NC MLAs raised our issues.”
Parray pointed out that employees who run the departments were not consulted in the pre-budget discussions.
However, he said they believed the Government represented them, as it had raised these issues during the elections and promised resolution.
He noted that the workers were hopeful, but when the budget was presented, the CM talked about hospitals, “yet there was nothing for those who work there.”
“Crores of rupees were allocated for JJM, but nothing for the casual labourers working there. Every department was discussed, but there was nothing for daily wagers.”
Parray further stated that the only mention of workers and their regularization in the budget was: “We are finding a resolution to the issue, and their lives will be made better.” However, he said, “that does not help us live our lives.”
To protest this “injustice” and remind the Government of its manifesto promises, “we have decided to march towards the CM’s residence from Exchange Road at 12 noon.”
He said that people, especially daily wagers, had voted keeping in view NC’s manifesto and the CM himself.
“We thought he is the grandson of Sher-e-Kashmir and would work as his grandfather did, who eliminated beggary from J&K-but to no avail. We believed this was our Government and that our issues would be resolved. Yet, for years, they have only been ‘finding solutions.'”
He said that failing to resolve the issues of daily wagers is an insult to those who campaigned and “told us that if we wanted our issues resolved, we should vote for NC.”
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