Daily wagers hold protest in Jammu, seek regularisation

Jammu, Oct 14: PHE daily wagers Monday held a protest demonstration in Jammu seeking regularisation and hoped that the newly elected J&K government, to be helmed by Omar Abdullah, would deliver justice to them.

Hoshiar Singh, a senior member PHE Employees United Front, while speaking to the media, said that they were hopeful of justice from the newly elected government, which had promised them regularisation.

He, however, cautioned that if the new government failed to provide them with justice, they would resume agitation by announcing its new schedule.

“We have been agitating for the past over two years but LG administration did not concede any of our genuine demands. It’s too difficult to run a family with a meagre amount of Rs 9000 per month. We have been struggling for the past 30 years but in vain so far. Now we have pinned hopes on the newly elected government and the Chief Minister (designate) Omar Abdullah to pay attention to our demands. If they fail to do so, we are ready to launch fresh agitation to secure justice,” Singh said.

Another protesting leader stated that the protest was being conducted to raise demand for regularisation.

“Over 60,000 daily wagers have been suffering in J&K for the past three decades, demanding regularisation. We want the implementation of SRO 64 brought in 1994. In 2014, National Conference-Congress had declared a policy for regularisation of daily wagers under SRO 64. However, the alliance could not come to power and hence that policy could not be implemented. During the past ten years, we kept on protesting yet none heard us. In fact, we were only fed on fake promises,” he said.

“During elections, not just NC and Congress, but all political parties, including PDP, BJP besides other smaller parties had included regularisation of daily wagers in their manifestoes. Now after a hiatus of 10 years, after the assembly elections, we are going to get our own elected government. As the National Conference, in alliance with Congress, is again going to form a government to be helmed by Omar Abdullah, very soon, we greet them. However, at the same time, we demand that Omar Abdullah as the Chief Minister should fulfill his promise vis-a-vis regularisation of daily wagers in his very first cabinet meeting,” he demanded.