Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Mar 22: The Jammu and Kashmir Daily Wagers and Casual Laborers Association (JKDWCA) today chastised the government for failing to address the problem of daily wagers in the Union Territory Budget 2022-23, which was passed by the Lok Sabha.
President Sajjad Ahmad Parray told a press conference here that over 61,000 daily wagers working in various government departments in Jammu and Kashmir felt betrayed because nothing was left for them in the budget.
He said that over the past two decades, daily wagers at various government departments such as PDD, PHE, Irrigation, and R&B, who are paid pitiful salaries, have demanded their regularization. “The government’s failure to keep its promises of regularising the services of daily workers has disappointed the daily wagers,” he stated.
Parray said the Jammu and Kashmir government recently approved the regularisation of the services of 12, 000 permanent daily laborers (PDL) and temporary daily laborers (TDL) working for the Power Development Department (PDD), and that a high-level team has been formed to regularise around 1000 employees working in other departments, but that the issue of pending employees has not been resolved.
He expressed his inability to comprehend the reasons behind the administration’s apathy towards them. “Are we not human beings? Isn’t it true that our families don’t matter to them?” he asked.
He said that the daily wagers who have been working for more than a decade should be regularized and pay should be hiked for the rest of the employees, “Our employees have been delivering their services for a long time and they are finding it difficult to run their homes,” he said.
He threatened to intensify protests if their demands are not met. “We will stage a peaceful protest on March 30th in Srinagar and continue protesting until our demands are not fulfilled,” he said.
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