Jammu: A day after Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha remarked that reserved category employees cannot be transferred, BJP on Thursday said transfer policy will be framed and no one from Jammu is made “guinea pig” in wake of selective killings in Kashmir.
“Come what may, transfer policy will be framed. We will make it happen or else will leave,” senior BJP leader Devender Rana told protesting employees outside the BJP headquarters here.
Referring to the protesting reserved category employees who are also camping in Jammu and demanding their relocation, LG Sinha had on Wednesday said, “They should also keep in mind that they are Kashmir division employees and cannot be transferred to Jammu.”
Flanked by BJP leaders including former deputy chief minister and Jammu Mayor, Kavinder Gupta, Rana said, “We promise you that transfer policy will be framed. BJP stands with you. Don’t think you are week.”
In a strong remark, BJP leaders said that no person from Jammu will be made “guinea pigs”.
“Any person from Jammu will not be a guinea pig. It is not a matter of policy, but it is a matter of responsibility. We cannot step back on this responsibility,” Rana said.
Former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta also said that the demand of the protesting employees will be fulfilled.
LG Sinha on Wednesday asserted all necessary measures have been taken for the safety of minority community employees including Kashmiri Pandits serving in the Valley, and sent out a “loud and clear” message to those protesting for transfer – “no salary for sitting at home”.
Sinha had made the remark amid the ongoing protest by migrant Kashmiri Pandit employees and Jammu-based reserved category employees who left the Valley for Jammu in May following the targeted killings of their two colleagues Rahul Bhat and Rajni Bhalla. The protesting employees have been seeking relocation outside Kashmir.
He said the J&K administration has full sympathy with them and is ready to provide them with security or any other assistance.
Earlier today, angered over LG Manoj Sinha’s remarks about stopping their salaries, Dogra and Kashmiri Pandit employees intensified their months-long protest demanding transfer from the Valley.
In their response to the LG’s remark, the employees made it clear to the government that they will not return to Kashmir until their demands for transfer policy and relocation are not addressed.
Dogra employees assembled under the banner of “All Jammu-based Reserved Categories Employees Association” at the BJP headquarters here and staged a sit-in to press their demand for framing a policy under which they should be transferred from the Valley to their home districts in the Jammu region.
“Let them stop salaries. Unless our demand for framing of transfer policy is made no one will join. Salaries are not more important than life,” one of the protesters told reporters here.
Expressing her concern over the LG’s remarks, she said he as a constitutional head violated the law to frame the committee to give recommendations on transfer policy in a time-bound manner, but now he is saying that they are employees of Kashmir valley.
The Dogras and Kashmiri Pandits employees returned to Jammu following the killing of their colleague Rajni Bala. A resident of Samba district, Bala was shot dead by terrorists at a school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on May 31.
Lashing at BJP, the protestors said that they should come out of their rooms and join our struggle as they had promised us that a transfer policy will be put in place to address their demand.
The PM package employees who have also been on a strike in the valley for the past seven months following the killing of their colleague Rahul Bhat on May 12 have also intensified the agitation by holding protests.
Bhat, a clerk, was shot dead inside the Tehsildar’s office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district.
Chanting slogans and carrying placards, the protesters said the government should accede to the demands of the protesting PM package employees and temporarily transfer them to Jammu till the security situation in the Valley improves.
