There are nearly 60,000 daily wagers and casual labourers working in different government departments from years together without any job guarantee. The respective governments made tall promises to resolve this issue but, on the ground, nothing was done and thus the fate of these people continue to hang in balance. The issue highlights the systemic problems in the administration regarding workers’ rights. In December 2017, then J&K government formulated an SRO for regularization of such employees but failed to do anything except regularizing the services of just 570 such employees. Later, the said SRO too was scrapped under the J&K Reorganisation Act, closing the door for regularization.
The regularization of daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir has been a contentious issue, with the government facing criticism for its inaction. Despite a 2007 high court order directing the regularization of daily wage workers who had served between 14 to 19 years in the rural development department, governments, that be, delayed taking ant concrete action. The Supreme Court recently slammed the J&K government for its failure to comply with the high court order, stating that the case was a “textbook example of government authorities considering themselves to be above the law”. The court noted that the government’s inaction was “shocking and prima facie contemptuous” and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the authorities.
Notably in March this year, the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah announced the formation of a committee to address the issue of regularisation of daily wagers in Jammu and Kashmir and said that a roadmap will be prepared for presentation in the next budget session before the House. He made this announcement on the floor of the House and said that the committee will be headed by the Chief Secretary and will include the Additional Chief Secretary in the Chief Minister’s Office, along with the Secretaries of the Planning, GAD, and Law departments as members. The committee had been given six months to thoroughly review the number of daily-wagers through GAD and assess the legal and financial aspects of their regularisation. Given the time frame announced, the committee has to present its report by September.
Now that a high level committee has been formulated regarding this pressing issue, and hopefully the said committee is doing its job, it is high time that the present dispensation does the needful. 60,000 daily wagers, their families and the entire populace of Jammu and Kashmir is watching. Let the commitments made to this section of the society during elections be upheld and let this committee come up with concrete road map within stipulated time and government resolve the issue once for all.