Jammu Tawi, Mar 11: BJP members staged a walkout from the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Tuesday after a war of words with NC MLAs over the detention and baton charge of protesting daily wage employees of the Jal Shakti department.
Scores of Jal Shakti (PHE) department workers and daily wagers were baton-charged and detained on Monday during demonstrations in Srinagar and Jammu as they marched towards the Assembly and the chief minister’s residence demanding release of their wages and regularisation. Their march was foiled by police authorities. Intervening in the House, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said it was a humanitarian issue and that members should wait for the government’s response on the issue of fulfilment of their demands.
“As far as the cane charge is concerned, the police are neither under your control nor ours, and such an incident should not have taken place,” he said.
MLA Vikram Randhawa, supported by BJP members, blamed the government for forcing daily wagers to take to the streets, arguing that despite promises made by the National Conference, the budget had nothing for them.
Leader of the Opposition Sunil Sharma and Sham Lal Sharma blamed the previous National Conference government for the current crisis.
However, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary countered, and said the NC government had employed these daily workers and would ensure their regularisation.
The House soon plunged into chaos wtih heated verbal exchanges between NC and BJP members. Some members also used derogatory language against each other. Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather later expunged the remarks.
The chief minister said the baton-charge should not have taken place, as those protesting were our employees.
Regarding the police action, Abdullah said, “Neither you nor we have control over them. Please raise the issue with those who control them.” He further said the police had taken note of the incident and should exercise restraint in the future.
However, BJP MLAs stood up, arguing that the situation had arisen because the government had allocated nothing for the workers in the budget.
This led to protests from the treasury benches. After several minutes of noisy scenes, BJP members staged a walkout from the House.
As the House assembled for the day in the morning, BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa raised the issue of protests by PHE daily wagers, highlighting the subsequent baton charge and detention in support of their demands for the release of wages.
He emphasised the need for the government to address their issues.
Randhawa was supported by several BJP members. National Conference members Mir Saifullah and B A Veeri, along with Congress member Nizamuddin Bhat, also raised the issue.
Despite Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather’s asking them to down and allow the Question Hour to proceed, the members continued raising the issue briefly, leading to a ruckus.
The daily wagers had previously staged long strikes last year demanding the release of their pending wages and regularisation of their services. Despite several rounds of talks with senior officials in the department, their issues remain unresolved.
CM announces Committee on issue of daily wagers
Jammu, Mar 11: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday announced the formation of a committee to address the issue of regularisation of daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir and said that a roadmap will be prepared for its presentation in the next budget session before the House.
This announcement was made by the chief minister while replying to the motion of thanks on the budget address in the Assembly.
“We want to reassure the daily-rated workers, ad hoc, and casual workers that we have not forgotten them. I am announcing the committee in front of the Assembly, headed by the Chief Secretary, and will be issuing the official order today after my budget speech,” Abdullah told the House.
He said that it 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.
“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 regularisation,” he added.
He said that the Law Department has a prime role after the Supreme Court’s judgment on the issue.
“They will be asked to prepare a framework within six months. They should fix the figures. After assessing all aspects, including legal and financial, they should prepare a roadmap on how to proceed so that in the next budget session, I can stand before you and say, ‘This is what we are going to do,’” he said.
There are an estimated 67,000 daily wagers in various categories in Jammu.
NC halted Daily Wagers’ regularisation in 2014: Sham
‘61,000 daily wagers from 47 deptts were identified; Govt holds complete data to finalise regularisation’
Jammu Tawi, Mar 11: Senior BJP leader and former minister, Sham Lal Sharma on Tuesday accused the National Conference (NC) of deliberately keeping the regularisation of daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir in limbo. He also claimed that the present dispensation is lying about not having the data on the number of daily-rated workers.
Sharma stated that when the NC-Congress was in power back in 2014, the data on daily wagers was compiled and finalised.
Sharma, who served as a cabinet minister and was a senior Congress leader during the NC-Congress coalition from 2009 to 2014, said that the data is still available with the government. He accused the NC-led dispensation of deliberately derailing the process and passing the buck.
“Back in 2013-14, it was the National Conference that played the spoilsport in the regularisation of daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir. The then Finance Minister was the Chairman of the Cabinet Sub-Committee, which identified data for 61,000 daily wagers from 47 departments. I had pursued that issue tooth and nail,” Sharma said.
He added that the regularisation process was put in cold storage by the National Conference because the number of daily wagers to be regularised was higher in the Jammu division compared to the Kashmir division.
“Instead, they went ahead with enhancing the retirement age of government employees from 58 to 60. This was done to support a few bureaucrats and trade union leaders who later fought elections on an NC tickets,” Sharma alleged.
“When will they regularise them if not now? The fact is that the National Conference is exposing daily-rated workers to extreme hardships. Their regularisation would require an estimated 122 crore rupees, but the proposal was kept in limbo for obvious reasons,” he added.
