Srinagar, May 27: Reacting sharply to the Governor administration’s decision of disengaging daily-wagers and other casual workers engaged in 2010 and 2015, various mainstream political parties have urged the Governor to reconsider this decision.
National Conference said that Governor administration should rethink its decision of “snatching livelihood” of poor workers who have families to feed.
“There daily-wagers and consolidated workers are the lone bread-winners of their families. Instead of snatching their livelihood, which is a wrong decision, these workers should be facilitated for regularization,” NC general secretary Ali Muhammad Sagar said.
He said the Governor administration should instead remove only those employees who have been recruited through illegal procedures.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice-president Abdul Rehman Veeri said it is a wrong decision. “These workers should be allowed to continue their work. Removing them is a wrong decision by the administration. If the administration can’t provide employment to jobless people, it should not create joblessness by disengaging these workers,” Veeri was quoted as saying by a local news agency.
Senior CPI(M) leader and former MLA of Kulgam M Y Tarigami also criticized the government order saying it has created uncertainty as these poor people are already suffering due to the non-payment of wages for months together.
Tarigai said that previous BJP-PDP government had in the Assembly assured that all these engagements would be regularised. However, instead of regularising them, the administration is issuing such orders which create confusion and chaos.
The “callous attitude” of the administration has put this hapless lot to tremendous hardships, Tarigami said.
In a statement here, Tarigami said most of them are the lone breadwinners of their families and disengaging them will have devastating effects not only on them, but on their families as well.
Unemployment in the state has assumed an alarming trend and the successive governments in the state lacked vision for tackling this problem. “It is not a matter of serious concern only, but we believe that any further delay in addressing this smouldering issue will make this problem worse to handle,” he said.
The Communist leader said one of the burning issues which is adding to the atmosphere of uncertainty and alienation here is the alarming rate of unemployment in the state.
“Already there are limited job opportunities as there is virtually no industrial and private sector in the state. In the absence of other viable avenues, the government sector is the only area which provides some opportunity for generating employment. But given the inability of the government to create such opportunities, the future seems to be bleak for our younger generation,” Tarigami said.
He said the Governor administration should regularise all the casual, seasonal, ad-hoc, contractual, need-based and daily-rated workers, who are working for years together.
“Both Union and State governments must devise comprehensive youth-oriented policies with long-lasting employment schemes,” he suggested.
The government has other day banned the engagement of casual, seasonal, adhoc, consolidated, contractual, need-based and daily-rated workers and ordered discontinuation of all those workers engaged on or after April 29, 2010 and on or after 17 March, 2015.
“It is impressed upon all the officers of the state government to strictly adhere/observe the statutory rules and codal provisions in letter and spirit and ensure that any person appointed on adhoc/contractual/consolidated/ temporary basis after the imposition of ban on such engagements (i.e. on or after 29.04.2010) in contravention of the provisions of the Act shall forthwith cease to continue;
“Any person engaged as casual/seasonal/need bases worker after imposition of ban on such engagements (i.e. on or after 17.03.2015) without specific approval of competent authority or without following due procedure shall also cease to continue forthwith;
“In the event of failure to comply with these instructions, the concerned officer(s) will be held personally responsible and the amount due or paid to such irregular appointee(s)/engage(s) shall be recovered from the personal emoluments of the officer(s) concerned who had made/continued such engagements(s) in violation of the rules, orders or codal procedures, besides the termination of all such irregular appointment(s)/engagement(s),” the government order has said.
