| 22 years on, 92 daily wagers waiting for their regularization in PHE | | | GS Asgotra
Jammu, Aug 5: Notwithstanding Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah's claims made publically that the services of daily wagers, need base workers and daily routine workers would be regularized, around 92 daily wagers in Public Health and Engineering (PHE) department have been waiting regularization for the last 22 years under SRO-64.
Sources told Early Times that the SRO-64 of 1994 was implemented by the then Governor on January 26, 1994, following which most of the daily wagers who were engaged in various Government departments before January 31, 1994 were regularized.
However, in PHE department several casual workers are still waiting for regularization of their services .
Deep Kumar a resident of Ram Nagar (Udhampur), who is working in PHE Mechanical wing for the last 20 years said, "I completed seven years of service on November 2000 but even after 22 years of service, I have not been regularized yet."
Expressing his plight, he said that he is the father of two and his own department has not released his salary for the last 18 months which had made life miserable for him and his family.
"We are being treated second class citizens, within our own department for being daily wagers", he said, adding that the department should release their salaries timely. "Government should also change its culture of occasional (Eid or Diwali) disbursement of salaries as it is question of our sustenance," he asserted.
A retired executive engineer, wishing not to be named said that it was a fault on the part of department, since the engagements are being made without any criteria. Deep Kumar is not an isolated daily wager deprived of the benefits of SRO-64 and Government's apathy, there are many daily wagers who have served department much beyond the period fixed for regularization their services.
"There are 92 daily wagers, whose cases files are gathering dust somewhere in cupboards of Administrative Department/ Finance Department for the last more than 15 years," said Kartar Singh, an employee leader.
When contacted, Chief Engineer, Sushil Kumar Aima acknowledged the problems being faced by daily wagers, and said that it was happening due to incomplete documentation. "There are some cases of incomplete documents, whose regularization are being delayed, but not on our part. We forward cases to authorities for regularization in time", he added. |
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