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| NPP lambasts NC-Cong coalition for discrimination with Jammu | | |
Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 16: Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party (JKNPP) is one party in Jammu province which from time to time takes on the NC-Congress coalition Government for its discriminatory policies towards Jammu and Kashmir. Its statements are always based on authentic official data. Indeed, it does proper homework before issuing a statement or holding a press conference. Its only weakness is that it does not pursue the issues it rakes up. Another problem with the JKNPP leadership is that it, like the BJP, only issues statements and hold press conferences and doesn't anything on the ground to compel the authorities to end discrimination with the people of Jammu province.
Take, for example, the JKNPP statement on discrimination with Public Health Engineering (PHE) workers in Jammu province. Only the other days, the JKNPP chairman and MLA from Ramnagar came down heavily on the coalition Government whose Ministers day in and day out claim that the present dispensation believes in the principle of justice and equity and that it has been treating all the three regions equally, saying that it is perpetrating on Jammu injustice after injustice and to put across his point he referred to preferential and differential treatment to the PHE workers in Kashmir and invidious, humiliating and unjust treatment to the PHE workers in Jammu.
Denouncing the discrimination with the PHE workers in Jammu, he said that while the poor and grossly discriminated against PHE workers in Jammu region are getting just Rs 500 to Rs 1000 per month, their counterparts in Kashmir are being paid Rs 3750 per month. He even asserted that there are PHE workers in Jammu province who are not even getting Rs 500 per month. He was right when he said that "discriminatory treatment doled out to the PHE workers of Jammu is not only violative of Minimum Wages Act (MWA) but violation of human rights also". He also did well to demand "payment of minimum wages to the workers as per the Act…"
It needs to be mentioned here that the PHE workers in Jammu have been demanding parity in wage structure with their Kashmiri counterparts since years now. The matter had also come up for discussion in the State legislature a number of times. The concerned Minister had acknowledged this discrepancy, but had expressed his inability to pay wages to the Jammu PHE workers saying his Ministry had no money to meet this demand. It is indeed a matter of grave concern that the State Government is treating the Jammu PHE workers so shabbily.
It is both ironical and disgusting that the State Government still claims that it is just and fair. It is not just the NC Ministers who make such false claims. The Congress Ministers hailing from Jammu province, without any exception, also make similar statements on a daily basis perhaps believing that the people of Jammu province are fool who could be taken for a ride. This policy would not do any longer, as the patience of the PHC workers, like other sections of society in Jammu province, is ending and ending very fast. The coalition Government would do well to realize the gravity of the situation and undertake measures that could end the prevailing unrest and discontent in Jammu province. |
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