Dy Speaker takes cognizance
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Jan 30: Amidst allegations by the Opposition Members that the number of Daily Rated Workers has suddenly gone up because of backdoor inclusion of some names, the Chair in Legislative Assembly took cognizance of the disclosure by MLA Khan Sahib, Hakeem Mohd Yasin on floor of the House that around 200 persons from his constituency had been registered for regularization on his fake recommendation.
Deputy Speaker Nazir Gurezi, who was in the Chair, termed the matter as a very serious issue and directed, while looking towards the Officers’ gallery, that the allegation needed to be probed and the guilty must be punished.
“A list of 610 Daily Wagers from my constituency has been forwarded for their regularization and 200 of them are claimed to have been officially recommended by my even as I have not made any recommendation in this regard,” Hakim Yasin told the House while participating in the Discussion on Grants for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Department in the Legislative Assembly.
Expressing apprehensions that similar modus operandi might have been adopted in other constituencies also for backdoor inclusion of fraudulent names for their registration and regularization, the MLA said that he had already written a formal communiqué to the PHE Minister apprising him of the matter but there was no response in this regard from the concerned quarters.
“I am not pin pointing any one or holding any officer guilty but only seeking a thorough enquiry to ascertain how these 200 persons were included in the list by claiming to have been recommended by me,” he said and reiterated that number of such backdoor entries across the State could be huge.
Earlier also, during the Question Hour, several Members alleged recent backdoor entries of Daily Wagers, whose number has suddenly risen from around 60,000 to more than one lakh.
The issue was raised in supplementary questions to the main question by Altaf Ahamd Wani with regard to regularization of Casual Labourers /Daily Rated Workers.
The Opposition Members, including Ali Mohd Sagar, Mian Altaf and others sought clarifications from the Government on contradictions in the figures of the regularization of Casual Labors.
As per the written reply on Wani’s question, there are total 100501 Casual and other workers in different Departments of the State Government. They include Casual Labour (69696), Seasonal Labour (8534), Daily Rated Workers (8836), Part-time Workers (3092), CIC Operators (156), NYCs Hamal/Drivers of FCS&CA Deptt (5757), Persons Engaged on Hospital Development Fund (1929), Part-time Sweepers (2153) and Prism-men/Settlement Assistant of Revenue Department (348).
PHE/I&FC Department has highest number of such workers (38585) and it is followed by PDD ((13616), Education (12646), Forest (8317), Revenue (6801), etc.
Wani sought clarification as whether the Government commits itself to regularize 60,000 Casual Labourers announced by the Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu within and outside the House or it plans to regularize more than one lakh Casual Labors as mentioned in the written reply of question on the issue raised in the house.
Ali Mohd Sagar, Mian Altaf, Hakeem Mohd Yasin and Abdul Majid Larmi raised the supplementaries over the issue and alleged that the Government was trying to adjust ruling party workers under the garb of regularization plan for Daily Wagers.
In his reply, Minister for Finance, Dr Haseeb Drabu informed the Legislative Assembly that the Jammu and Kashmir Casual and Other Workers-Regular Engagement Rules, 2017 has been notified recently for regularization of these workers. However, he said no worker has been considered so far as per the provisions of SRO 520 dated 21-12-2017.
While replying to another Question by Altaf Ahmed Wani, the Minister further elaborated that the Government has already notified a policy and an empowerment committee has been constituted to recommend the creation of commensurate positions of Government Service Assistants (GSA) after proper scrutiny of proposals from the concerned departments. He further said that the cases of individual workers shall be screened by the committee for necessary recommendations in each case and it shall meet at regular intervals.
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