Daily Wage Workers In Jammu Demand Release Of Committee Report On Regularisation

Hundreds of daily wage employees of the Jal Shakti department staged a protest on Thursday, pressing the government to release the report of the committee constituted by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to examine the regularisation of their services. According to PTI, the PHE Employees United Front, Jammu, urged the chief minister to present the report in the Assembly during the ongoing session.

The workers warned that if their demands are not addressed, they would launch an intensified protest on October 27. They highlighted that daily wagers have been campaigning for over two decades for regularisation of their employment.

Amid slogans of “We want justice”, the employees held a dharna at the Jal Shakti office in Jammu on the first day of the autumn session of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. “We have held protests for more than 1,200 days, yet the government has not fulfilled our demand for regularisation. On the first day of the assembly session, we want to remind the government about our demand and seek the status of the committee report,” PHE Employees United Front (Jammu Province) leader Ravi Hans told reporters, PTI reported.

He noted that during the previous assembly session, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had announced a committee to examine the regularisation of daily wage employees. “The committee was given six months to submit its report, which was due by September 19. Till now, we have no information on its fate,” Hans said.

The workers’ organisation demanded that the report be tabled in the assembly in the current session. “If the government fails to present the report, the front will hold an aggressive protest on October 27,” he added.

According to PTI, the Jammu and Kashmir government had constituted a six-member committee on March 19 to look into issues concerning the regularisation of daily wage workers in the Union Territory. The committee, headed by the chief secretary, was tasked with examining humanitarian, legal, and financial aspects related to the regularisation of casual, seasonal, and other workers, and to recommend suitable measures.

The committee was intended to prepare a roadmap for presentation during the next budget session, Abdullah had announced in the assembly, PTI reported. There are an estimated 67,000 daily wage workers employed across various departments in Jammu and Kashmir.