JAMMU, Oct 26:
A day after putting in his papers as minister in Jammu and Kashmir Government, senior Congress leader Sham Lal Sharma today called for a Hindu Chief Minister in the state while attacking some of his NC colleagues over “discrimination” against daily wage workers of Jammu region.
Sharma, who resigned as Minister for Public Health Engineering and Flood Control yesterday, said he had to resign from the Cabinet after two senior NC leaders resorted to “blackmailing”.
“A senior NC leader and Cabinet minister Mohammed Akbar Lone blackmailed me as he wanted me to keep rules aside and adjust his men in the list of daily wage workers that we had decided to regularise in the department.
“Lone said that only after I include the names of his men he will sign the order to regularise the daily wage workers of my department who had served for more than ten years,” Sharma told reporters in Jammu today.
Sharma also said that the reason for his resignation was the “discrimination” with the Jammu-based ‘daily wage’ workers of the PHE department.
“Last year, when I took the charge of the PHE department I found that since 1994 around 11,984 daily wage workers were regularised in the department and out of which 11,129 were from Kashmir division and only 855 from Jammu division,” Sharma claimed.
He also called for a Hindu Chief Minister in the state.
“It is up to the voters of the State, if they want a Hindu Chief Minister they can elect one,” he said.
Sharma said that during a Cabinet meeting held on June 30, it was decided that the services of 23,711, daily-wage workers who had completed ten years of service with the department would be regularised.
“I found that there were 23,711 workers engaged with the department after Jan 30, 1994. So during the Cabinet meeting we decided to regularise their services, while around 6,000 were from Kashmir division more than 16,000 were from Jammu division, which created problem for the NC leaders,” Sharma said.
He said that even though the Cabinet sub committee approved the order, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather did not sign it.
“The finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather during the meeting had told me that he would attach a cover letter and then send the order to the General Administration Department, but when I came to know that it was not done, I raised objections and then another cabinet colleague who is a senior NC leader approached me as he wanted me to adjust his people by breaking the rules by putting a back date on their joining. I refused it as this was sheer blackmailing,” Sharma said.
Sharma said,”this was a blackmail on their part, so I decided to resign from the cabinet and as the chief minister was out of station, I submitted my resignation to my party chief in the state who will forward it to the chief minister on his return,” he said.
However, senior National Conference leaders were not available for comments when contacted. (AGENCIES)
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