After solemnly acknowledging in the J&K Assembly that the regularization of daily wagers is a humanitarian issue and quite justified, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah is left with no other option but to help this community to come out of the state of suffering as this has become utmost necessary.
The decision of Omar Abdullah, which he made public today during the Assembly session by announcing the formation of a committee to address the issue of regularization of daily wagers by preparing the roadmap which it will present in the next budget session has rekindled the hopes of the concerned daily wage workers.
It is expected that the decision made by CM Omar in this regard would follow action on ground and is not a gimmick to gain time for shelving the matter concerning welfare of thousands of daily wagers and their families, as dilly dallying tactics of previous governments had made the lives of these workers highly miserable.
Reportedly, the aforesaid committee will have the Additional Chief Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, along with the Secretaries of the Planning, GAD and Law Departments as members, and it will be the responsibility of the chief secretary to ensure that the committee formed should perform the job as expected. The committee will be given six months to thoroughly review the number of daily wagers through GAD and assess the legal and financial aspects of their regularization.
As Omar Abdullah has said that after the picture becomes clear, he will announce the decision in the next budget session to provide the long awaited justice to the daily wagers, it is necessary that daily wagers should stop protests and keep their fingers crossed to see a favourable result sooner than later.
It is pertinent to mention that the issue was highlighted by the BJP legislators as they were protesting the cane charge and detentions of protesting daily wagers of Jal Shakti Department in the Assembly and later staged a walkout. There are an estimated 67,000 daily wagers in various categories and they are demanding justice from the governments that ruled the UT.
Although the issue is archaic as the daily wagers have submitted their plights before the governments of almost all the parties in the past, therefore no party could accuse or single out the other party for not doing enough in this matter in J&K but since the ball is in NC’s court now, it is advisable that the leadership of this party should show extraordinary sincerity in the matter and do the needful within its tenure in power. For sure, a positive outcome in this issue will help the NC party to win the hearts of many seeking justice from successive governments in J&K.
