JAMMU, Oct 27: Hundreds of daily wagers from the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department on Monday staged a protest in Jammu, demanding that the Jammu and Kashmir government table the long-pending committee report on the regularisation of their services in the ongoing Assembly session.
The protest, organised by the PHE Employees United Front (Jammu Province), took place at the Jal Shakti office, where workers raised slogans such as “Report ko Assembly mein table karo” and “Daily wagers ko regularise karo.” This marked their second major demonstration in five days, following an earlier protest on October 23, the first day of the Assembly session.
“We want the government to immediately table the committee report and fulfil our long-pending demand for regularisation,” said union leader Ravi Hans, urging opposition legislators to raise the issue in the House. He added that the committee’s term had expired in September without any update on its findings.
Hans cautioned that if the government continued to delay action, workers would be forced to intensify their agitation. “We do not wish to inconvenience the public, but if our demands are ignored, we will have no option but to hit the roads,” he warned.
The Omar Abdullah-led government had set up a six-member committee in March to examine the humanitarian, legal, and financial aspects of regularising casual, seasonal, and other daily wage workers in Jammu and Kashmir. The panel, headed by the Chief Secretary, was expected to submit its report by September 19, but no progress has been made public since then.
According to estimates, there are around 67,000 daily wagers working across various government departments in the Union Territory. (Agencies)
