Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 18: The leaders and workers of Panthers Party led by its chairman Harsh Dev Singh and Yashpal Kundal State president Young Panthers, staged a protest demonstration against Tourism Department seeking release of long pending wages and regularization of services of daily rated, need based workers and casual labourers working in Tourism Development Authorities (TDAs), at Exhibition Ground here today.
Lambasting the Tourism Department for its indifferent attitude towards the DRWs, need based workers and casual labourers working in various Tourism Development Authorities in the State, Harsh Dev revealed that the Department of Tourism, being the main developmental, promotional and regulatory arm of the J&K Government had set up Tourism Development Authorities to speed-up infrastructure development in selected tourist resorts Surinsar, Mansar, Patnitop, Parmandal, Utterbehni, Sarthal, Rajouri, Poonch, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, etc. He regretted that these Authorities had employed thousands of DRWs (Daily Rated Workers), need based workers and casual labourers all across the State who were forced to work like bonded labourers without paying their meager wages for the last 20-22 months.
Regretting the pitiable plight of such employees rendering their services for more than 8-10 years in the aforesaid Tourism Development Authorities, Mr Singh demanded immediate release of long pending wages in their favour besides regularization of their services. He said that their families had been pushed to starvation and other miseries which was the worst kind of exploitation akin to the human rights violations.
Yashpal Kundal also spoke on the occasion and criticized the State Tourism authorities. He demanded release of the wages of hapless workers.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Pratap, Naresh Chib, Sham Gorkha, Chetan Sharma, Neeraj Gupta, Sewa Singh Bali, Parshotam Parihar, Manoj Gupta Khajoor Singh, Kailash Mohan and Uday Veer.
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