Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 5: Entire Opposition today staged walk-out over contradictory reply by the Government in response to two different questions pertaining to engagement of casual labourers in different departments.
The protest from the Opposition MLAs started when National Panthers Party MLA from Ramnagar, Harshdev Singh pointed out that in reply to the question of Lal Chand the Government has stated that 2743 casual labourers/daily wagers have been engaged in 35 departments during the last four years while as in reply to the question of CPM MLA, Mohd Yousaf Tarigami it has been mentioned that no engagement of casual/seasonal labourers has been made so far.
“This is the contempt of the House”, Mr Singh and Mr Tarigami remarked, adding “the Government is misleading the House as well as Members on the issue of engagement of casual labourers”.
Expressing serious concern over the contradictory reply, Lal Chand said, “it seems that Government wants to hide something from the House so that it can go ahead with the engagement of casual/seasonal labourers on pick and choose basis”.
Joining the issue, another NPP MLA, Balwant Singh Mankotia said, “one one side Government is stating that the daily wagers engaged after 1994 would not be regularized and on other side it is engaging casual labourers/daily wagers on pick and choose basis”, adding “instead of settling the dust over the issue the Government is trying to keep the members of this House in dark by giving contradictory reply to two questions on same issue”.
Jammu State Morcha MLA, Ashwani Sharma said, “in some departments the officers continued to engage need base workers and now they are finding it difficult to pay wages”, adding “Government should inform the House as to what action it is going to take against such officers”.
In order to clear the confusion, Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs, Abdul Rahim Rather said, “the reply to Mr Tarigami’s question pertains to different scheme whereby Government has approved engagement of 43,000 casual/seasonal labourers in seven departments”, adding “I am stating with authority that no engagement under this scheme has been made till date because the operational modalities for these engagements are being worked out”.
However, the Opposition MLAs were not ready to relent. NPP MLA, Harshdev Singh asked, “will you adopt transparent procedure or continue with pick and choose policy”. Tarigami also shouted, “it seems they (Ministers) are running their private business”.
Expressing dis-satisfaction over the Minister’s reply all the Opposition MLAs staged walk-out.
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