STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Flaying the government for its brazen disregard for the issues of agitating NHM employees, MGNREGA workers and contractual lecturers besides others who were protesting on the streets for their most legitimate demands including Job policy and regularisation of services, Harsh Dev Singh, JKNPP Chairman and former Minister on Saturday called upon the concerned authorities to summon their representatives for dialogue and to address their concerns with all sincerely so as to end the stalemate.
In a statement issued here, Harsh said that prolonged strikes by various sections of temporary employees had not only adversely impacted upon the delivery of public services but had embittered the government-employee relationship in the State. He said that issuance of threats and use of police force against the employees was not the solution to the long pending issue as it would only escalate tension leading to a larger employee unrest in the State.
Terming the delay and deny approach of the government as exploitative, Singh said that it would have to evolve a suitable job policy commensurate with its oft repeated slogans and thereby assuring them job security and sustainable livelihood. He said that thousands of highly qualified youth had been engaged under NHM, MGNREGA and as contractual lecturers by the government on consolidated basis since the launch of the said schemes without revising their salaries or framing any policy with respect to their regularisation. He said that such employees were made to work like bonded labourers on negligible honorarium despite repeated government assurances of pay parity with their counterparts in the regular establishments.
Expressing anguish over the exploitation of the young fraternity in the State, Singh said thousands of youth had fled to other states for jobs and several thousands under-employed as casual and need based workers in various departments besides ReTs, NHM, Technical Assistants, Anganwari and ASHA workers having been made to languish in open with no wages to them for several months. Similarly, the contractual lecturers working in the educational institutions since 5-15 years with the hope of getting regularised were paid peanut salaries and several of them had been ruthlessly terminated by the government after exploiting their services for more than a decade, he added.
Decrying the payment of lesser wages to NHM, MG-NREGA, Education employees against their regular counterparts, Singh said that the govt policy was not only discriminatory but also violative of constitutional guarantees. He said that even the Supreme Court in its latest judgement delivered has observed that denying Equal Pay for Equal Work to temporary employees was oppressive, suppressive and coercive as it compelled involuntary subjugation.
Harsh appealed to the Chief Minister to address the issue on priority as lakhs of family members were dependent upon such employees for sustenance and livelihood. He said that JKNPP shall stand toe to toe and shoulder to shoulder with NHM, MGNREGA employees and contractual lecturers in the struggle for justice.
