GP fund not any charity from govt to its employees: Basharat Bukhari

Srinagar, June 27: Regretting the delayed release of GP fund bills of government employees, former Law Minister Syed Basharat Bukhari Tuesday demanded a white paper on financial health of the state.

In a statement he said that if the government was not able to pay employees their own " savings" then it should declare a "financial emergency" and stop beating the drums of bringing a " so called" revolution in J&K during last five years .

The former minister wondered how any government on earth can deprive its employees of their own savings in the times of distress and extreme requirements.

" An employee entrusts the government with his savings in the form of a GP Fund, hoping that this earnings will come to his rescue at the time of distress or urgent need like treatment, marriage of children or sending them to higher studies. But look at the apathy of the present time government, these employees are being made to wait for months and even years for the release and ironically and disgustingly being paraded in the secretariat," said Bukhari .

The former Law Minister said that this was against the ethics of employee - employer relationship and violated the fundamental rights of the employees. He further said that if the government was so poor that it could not manage to return the own savings of the employees then it should stop the extravaganza spending on government functions, and bring austerity measures immediately. He said , crores of rupees are being spent unnecessarily on cutting ribbons , and holding cultural shows whereas the poor employees are being made to face the brunt of these lavish spending. While wondering how the same employees get the loans from the bank so easily while struggling to secure the release of the GP Fund( which is their own hard earned money), Bukhari said this angle also needs to be probed or at least looked into.