Panel examining regularisation of over 1 lakh casual, daily-rated workers in J&K: Govt
Srinagar, Oct 31: The Jammu and Kashmir Government on Friday said that a high-level committee has been constituted to examine all issues related to the regularisation of casual, seasonal labourers, daily-rated and other categories of workers engaged across various departments in the Union Territory.
In a written reply in the Legislative Assembly to a series of clubbed questions from legislators, including Mir Saifullah, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, Sham Lal Sharma, Abdul Majeed Larmi, Waheed ur Rehman Para, Mohd Irfan Hafiz Lone, the Minister-in-Charge said that various departments have engaged such workers over time to ensure the continuity of essential services and implementation of developmental programmes on the ground.
“The nature, duration and remuneration of such engagements vary across departments depending upon the specific scheme and mandate,” the Minister said.
The government stated that the particulars of all such workers have been collected through online Aadhaar-based biometric identification and skill profiling, which was aimed at verifying details, eliminating duplication, and removing bogus entries.
According to the data annexed to the reply, a total of 1,00,501 casual and other workers have been registered across departments in J&K. The highest numbers are in PHE/Irrigation & Flood Control (38,585), Power Development Department (13,616), Forest Department (8,317), and Public Works (R&B) (6,801).
The Minister said that, in terms of Government Order No. 384-JK(GAD) of 2025 dated 19.03.2025, a Committee headed by the Chief Secretary was constituted to examine humanitarian, legal and financial issues concerning these workers and to suggest a comprehensive way forward for their regularisation.
“The Committee is mandated to examine all dimensions — constitutional, legal, administrative and financial — and to make suitable recommendations to the government,” the reply stated.
On the question of wages, the Minister informed that daily-rated and casual workers are being paid as per the Minimum Wages notified by the government. Departments have also engaged community-level volunteers (DRWs/CSWs) under Central Programme guidelines.
The Minister said the biometric exercise was an important step to ensure transparency and accountability in the engagement of such workers. “This process ensures that genuine workers are identified and that there is uniformity in their data across departments,” he said.
The government also ruled out any arbitrary regularisation, saying that the process will follow the recommendations of the committee and will be guided by financial and administrative feasibility.
