BDC Chairperson Block Dansal, Reena Thappa urged the newly joined Lt Governor of J&K, Manoj Sinha for adopting a comprehensive policy for regularisation of daily wagers and casual labourers employed in various state departments since March 1994 before the forthcoming Independence Day.
In a statement issued here today, the BDC Chairperson solicited attention of Lt Governor towards delayed regularization of daily wagers of PHE and PDD Departments who are unnecessarily being pushed from pillar to post for their genuine demands including permanent absorption and release of pending wages.
Thappa asserted that there are over one lakh such employees who have been working relentlessly in various departments like PHE, PDD, Forest, CAMPA workers, Wildlife, Command Area Development, Education, Irrigation, Agriculture and R&B for the last over two decades. Unfortunately, the successive governments have utterly failed to address their genuine demands, compelling them to go for frequent strikes, she added.
She emphasized even today, when the whole world was battling a deadly disease like COVID-19, these temporary employees were engaged in public service, risking their lives.
“The Government should regularize their services because majority of them have completed more than 7 years of services,” she said. She also demanded that minimum wage act should be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir so that these casual labourers and daily wagers should get the honorable wages. She emphasized the need for adopting a comprehensive policy for regularisation of daily wagers and casual labourers employed in various state departments since March 1994.
Thappa said that the monthly emoluments of daily wagers should be raised to Rs 15,000 in view of sharp increase in prices of essential commodities. Besides, government should also fix a date for releasing wages of these workers on monthly basis so that they may not face any inconvenience, she added.
The BDC Chairperson asserted that these workers were being paid meager wages that too not on time. “How does the government expect these poor employees to run their day-to-day family affairs without wages and rising inflation?” Thappa asked, while urging the LG to intervene into the matter and resolve their issue on war footing basis.
She further demanded that till their regularization, the government should not only release wages of all such hapless workers but also enhance the same as per the Minimum Wages Act in vogue across the country.