Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 31: Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Ali Mohd Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul today disposed of a PIL filed by All Jammu & Kashmir Panchayat Conference seeking directions for releasing unpaid wages to around 23.5 lakh poor workers with the observations that the subject of the PIL squarely comes within the domain and powers of the executive as such the petitioner should approach the competent authority for seeking the relief.
In the PIL, out of 23.5 lakhs workers 15.43 lakhs are active workers, who are the residents of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and had undertaken manual labour work under MGNREGA. However, despite the express provisions for disbursement of wages within a maximum prescribed period of 15 days, these children of lesser Gods and forsaken souls had not been paid fully by the respondents and from the year 2015 till date a huge amount of around Rs 29108.96 lakh stands as liability against the respondents.
Out of this, an amount of Rs 19224.69 lakh is due against the payment of wages of unskilled workers and an amount of Rs 9884.27 lakh is due on the payment of wages of skilled and semi-skilled workers.
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