*New office bearers for Ramnagar elected
Excelsior Correspondent
UDHAMPUR, Oct 17: Jal Shakti/PHE Employees and Worker Association leader, Som Nath has said that daily rated workers of J&K, who are struggling for the last several years, have high hopes from the Omar Abdullah- led National Conference Government.
Addressing a large meeting of the daily rated workers hailing from Basantgarh, Kulwanta, Kaghote, Dehari, Majalta, Mansar, Khoon, Rang Bland and other places at PHE Complex Ramnagar today, Som Nath district president and senior Trade Union leader appealed to the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah to do justice with about 61,000 daily wagers including Jal Shakti and other different departments of JK UT. He strongly criticized the previous UT Administration for not resolving the issue of daily wagers despite assurances.
Projecting the demands of the daily rated and other temporary/ casual workers, the Trade Union leaders demanded regularisation of CP/ITI/Land case workers, who have completed seven years of service. He further demanded release of pending wages of nearly last 65-70 months with effect from 2014-2019 of many PHE workers.
Som Nath said that minimum wages to the workers of J&K should be given accordingly as per Govt order of Delhi UT. The UT Government in Ladakh has enhanced the wage rate of daily wage workers but the J&K Administration has not taken any decision in this regard so far. They have hiked rate for unskilled workers to Rs 400 per day, skilled workers Rs 575 per day and highlly skilled workers as Rs 835 per day.
He said that water stations and offices of PHE are facing acute shortage of staff. The new staff should be appointed there without any delay. Due to this thousands of DRWs are facing much burden, he added.
Trade Union leader also demanded that 3% DA should be released immediately before Diwali festival in favour of UT employees as Central Government has already released it.
Meanwhile, Sham Singh was elected as president, Jagsish Kumar as general secretary, Krishan Lal vice president, Uttam Singh- organizer, Badri Nath office secretary, Ramesh Chander president Mech wing and Sanjay Kumar as secretary for Ramnagar unit of the Association.
Senior members of the association Vijay Kumar Sharma, Suraj Parkash, Dinesh Kesar, Krishan Chand, Parth Singh, Kuldeep Kumar, Parveen and Tilak Raj Katoch were also present.
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