Jammu: A group of over 170 contractual employees working as operators of community information centres (CIC) in Jammu and Kashmir has sought the intervention of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha for regularisation of their services.
According to the operators, they have been working in the Rural Development Department (RDD) of the union territory on contractual basis since 2004 on a meagre salary of Rs 10,000 per month.
The 172 operators said they are all qualified with degrees like MCA, M.Sc IT, B.E, B.Tech and M.Tech. They also claimed that they have been seeking action by the administration on the issue for the past 17 years, including by holding sit-in demonstrations in Srinagar, but to no avail.
“We appeal to the Lieutenant Governor on behalf of 172 CIC operators to kindly intervene and convey necessary instructions to the authorities for issuance of formal regularization orders in favour of these operators,” president of these employees’ association, Noor I-Nayeem Sidiqi told reporters.
He said all the requisite formalities pertaining to their absorption as regular public sector employees were completed, and a proposal was passed by the then J&K cabinet for regularization of these operators in 2014 and subsequent creation of 172 posts in 2016 by the then cabinet.
“Why is the administration using delaying tactics in issuance of formal regularization orders in favour of 172 CIC operators?” he asked.
Sidiqi said cases were cleared one after the other by a high-level empowered committee of the erstwhile state’s Finance department in 2017 apart from consent given by the Advocate General and the Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs department.
He said since 2004, these operators who are highly qualified with degrees like MCA, M.Sc IT, B.E, B.Tech and M.Tech are handling all the programmes of the Rural Development and Panchayati Raj setups, both online as well as offline, besides all other official assignments.
As per the government rules on regularization of daily wagers, contractual persons are regularised in government services after completing a seven-year period.
“We are 172 CIC operators working in RDD on contractual basis since 2004 on a meagre amount of Rs 10,000 per month. We are facing a lot of hardships to feed our families and also could not provide proper education to our children,” Sidiqi said.
He said they have been appointed on merit basis through proper recruitment procedure by district-level committees constituted by the government of J&K, headed by deputy commissioners of the concerned districts in 2004.
“For the past 17 years, these operators are handling efficiently all the online work, web portals of the ministry of rural development & panchayati raj viz e-gram swaraj, swachh bharat mission, PMAY, peoples plan campaign (Sabki yojna sabka vikas), GPDP, mission antyodaya, PFMS and other e-governance related activities.
“Besides we are doing all other office assignments – elections, establishment, accounts, works at block, district, directorate and secretariat level,” he said.
