Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 23: Pradesh Congress and Communist Party of India (M) today said that the Jammu and Kashmir administration’s recent notification under SRO 324 to acquire powers to retire Government employees at the age of 48 years or after completing 22 years of service, is draconian and is against the interests of the lakhs of employees working in the region.
Senior Congress leaders have strongly criticized the order of the Govt providing for forcible retirement of any Government official after 22 years of service or 48 years of age and termed it as a highly arbitrary and authoritarian move.
Reacting to the order, the senior Congress leaders have said that the order is totally arbitrary and would lead to unnecessary exploitation of employees in hands of Government and superiors and would lead to overt subordination. Apart from it the officials would be kept under the fear of removal at the middle of his /her career and at the young age.
They said that the Government as an employer has the right to remove or retire an employee after following due process of law if there are justified grounds. The Government is creating fear among the employees for no reasons reflecting the anti-employees mindset of BJP Government especially towards Jammu and Kashmir. The party has asked the Govt to revoke the order to settle the great unrest amongst the employees.
The signatories to the statement include former minister and vice presidents JKPCC Raman Bhalla, Mula Ram, chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma, Rajnish Sharma, Yogesh Sawhney former minister, Manmohan Singh, Ex MLAs Ashok Sharma, Shiv Dev Singh, Indu Pawar, Parkash Sharma, G L Chalotra, Shabir Khan, Hari Singh Chib and others.
CPI (M) leader, Mohd Yousuf Tarigami in a press statement has said that the notification/SRO aims to keep the employees under pressure which is bound to cause insecurity among them. It would serve as a tool to the Government and bureaucrats to suppress their subordinates. A sword of uncertainty has been kept on the heads of employees which can also be exploited by their superiors.
There were already several laws to govern employees and what was the need to issue such draconian laws. The objective of such laws is only to prevent employees’ unions from raising their voice against the ‘anti-employee’ policies of the Government and the management.
The BJP Government has already withdrawn several rights of the workers by suspending Labour laws, in several BJP ruled states. The three Labour laws passed in the Parliament at the far end of the truncated monsoon session constitute a grave assault on the working class of the country. The Modi Government has rammed through these three anti-worker bills by muzzling Parliament during the pandemic period.
The Central Government is going ahead with implementation of pro-corporate and anti-working class neo-liberal reforms in an aggressive manner. Large scale outsourcing, ban on creation of posts, non-filling up of about seven lakhs vacancies, move to corporatize various functions of the Government, freezing and impounding of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief, closure or merger of various Central Government establishments, refusal to scrap Contributory Pension Scheme (NPS) or to guarantee 50% of last pay drawn as minimum pension, refusal to modify retrograde recommendations of 7th Pay Commission.
All these measures have deepened the anger and discontentment among the ranks of employees.
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