Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 27: Demanding release of report of the Government Committee for the regularisation of daily wagers in JKUT, the daily wage workers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE)/ Jal Shakti Department today staged a strong protest demonstration and march in the winter capital city here today.
The PHE workers under the banner of PHE Employees United Front of Jammu province held protest on the 1225th day in support of their demands. On the first day of the Assembly session on October 23, they had staged massive protest dharna. Amid slogans of “We want justice”, “Report ko Assembly mein Table Karo” and “Daily wagers ko Regularise Karo”, hundreds of workers sat on a protest dharna at BC Road PHE Complex, outside the office of Chief Engineer. They also took out march on BC Road but were stopped by police.
The protesting workers are demanding regularisation of their services, release of pending wages and implementation of Minimum Wages Act as per other UTs in the Jammu and Kashmir. They further demanded that Government Committee’s report of regularisation of daily wagers be released without any delay. Six months time was given to the Committee and now seven months are over.
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PHE United Front leader Ravi Singh said, “We staged a large protest here for the second time during this Assembly session. We want the Government to fulfil our long-pending demand for the regularisation of daily wagers. We want the Government to table the report of the committee in the Assembly during the current session.”
“We do not want to come on the roads and cause inconvenience to the public. But if the Government forces us, we will have no option but to hit the roads to press the Government for the regularisation of daily wagers and for bringing out a policy. The opposition members in the Assembly should also exert pressure on the Government for out demand,” he said.
Ravi Hans further said that the Omar Abdullah Government had set up a committee to prepare a report on the regularisation of daily wagers during the last Assembly session. “When we were on the roads during the last session, the committee was announced, and a period of six months was given to it to table the report. It was to be submitted by September 19, but till now, we do not know the fate of the committee report,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention here that that the committee headed by the Chief Secretary was asked to examine various issues, including humanitarian, legal, and financial aspects related to the regularisation of casual, seasonal labourers, and other workers in Jammu and Kashmir, and to suggest measures. There are about 67000 such workers in the JKUT seeking their regularisation.
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