Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Aug 29: Under the banner of the Self Help Group of Engineers Association today, the engineers staged a protest against the rolling back of the Self Help Group of Engineers Scheme, which was abolished by the Government a few years ago.
Several such engineers appeared in the Press Enclave and were seen raising slogans in favor of their demands, while they also highlighted their plight.
Shafat Ahmad Lone of the association, who was heading the protest, said that they have been rendered unemployed all of a sudden by the Government after the rollback of the scheme and since then they are running from pillar to post.
“We were doing it on our own by all of a sudden, the scheme was rolled back, bringing us out of roads; we are suffering, our families are suffering,” he said.
The aggrieved engineers said that they were working under the scheme for the last 20 years and that it was abolished in a jiffy without any consultation in August 2020
“It was an Atmanirbhar scheme and after it was abolished, we came out of the streets demanding justice; LG Manoj Sinha formed a committee, but nothing has come out of that,” they said.
They said that nearly 15000 people were associated with the scheme and now they have been left to suffer.
It is to be noted here that the Self Help Group of Engineers Scheme was launched in J&K in 2003 by the then Government to organize unemployed engineers of the state into Self Help Groups by providing a gainful source of livelihood in the shape of work contracts and supply order as an alternative to the Government jobs.
The protesting engineers said that the idea behind the scheme was to create a group culture among unemployed engineers for their socio-economic empowerment. They demanded that the scheme should be brought back with its originality.
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