Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 22: Enraged over the retrenchment of casual workers, working in Military farms in J&K and transportation of respective cattle to Manipur in barbaric manner following the closure of such farms in Jammu region, NPP activists led by party chairman Harsh Dev Singh along with terminated farm workers and office bearers of J&K Ex-servicemen State Diary Cooperative Limited staged a protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground Jammu today.
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While raising slogans against the BJP, the agitated protesters accused the Govt of arbitrarily terminating the services of the local youth working in said farms and facilitating organized bovine smuggling in violation of the directives issued by Ministry of Defence pertaining to Military farms.
Addressing the media, Harsh Dev said that for the purpose of supply of quality milk and dairy products to the Defence personnel the Military Farms (MFs) established at Jammu, Udhampur and Nowshera were ordered to be closed by Ministry of Defence, in the year 2017-18. He said while the Military Farm workers in other states were progressively transferred to other wings and departments of Defence, the casual labourers of the Jammu based farms who were engaged on monthly wages for years were ruthlessly terminated from their services after having been treated like disposables.
“Over 50 casual workers of Jammu Military Farm alone were pushed to starvation by the authorities despite having policy of regularization laid down by the Govt. Several of them have rendered their services for more than 12 years and there are many who have given 20-25 years of their lives in the service of maintaining the farms and the cattle. How could the Govt be so callous to the workers who gave precious years of their youth in the service of the department?” questioned Singh.
Expressing anguish over the fate of the cows of the closed Military farms, Harsh Dev pointed out that the closure order categorically directed the authorities to transfer the respective cattle to Central/ State Government departments or State co-operatives. He regretted while the cows of Udhampur and Nowshera Military farms were distributed among SC/ST farmers and mule operators, the hapless 750 cows of Jammu Military farm mainly of Fieswal breed were left to the mercy of God. “As reported by the terminated workers and Ex-serviceman livestock cooperative society each cow worth Rs 1 lakh is sold for meagre Rs 1000 outside State and 350 such cows have been transported in trucks and dispatched to Manipur in circumvention of the directives issued by the Defence Ministry.
MS Thakur president Ex-Servicemen Cooperative, SL Bhat general secretary also spoke on the occasion.
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