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| Construction activity halts in Kashmir as labourers flee | | Govt sites too in trouble; even domestic helps not available | | NIRBHAY JAMMUAL
Srinagar, Aug 16: With more than 40,000 non-state subject labourers fleeing the Valley following chasing life threats from militants and separatists, a crisis has boomeranged Kashmir with no skilled worker or labourer available either for the domestic chores or outdoor works.
Meanwhile, hundreds of youth from the districts of Doda, Kishtwar, Ramban, Rajouri and Poonch have quietly stepped into the Valley to make quick bucks out of the situation but it has helped neither these youths nor the hirers.
Following threats from the militants and hardliner separatists like Syed Ali Shah Geelani the non-state subject labourers rushed home feeling risk to their lives. Immediately after exodus of these labourers the construction works in Kashmir have come to grinding halt while thousands of residents have been suffering due to lack of domestic helps.
It may be mentioned here that Jammu and Kashmir is already faced with a severe scarcity of skilled construction workers and most of the people engaged here are either from Bihar, UP, West Bengal or Punjab. With skilled workers like masons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers etc running back home, the private construction works have been suffering badly in the Valley while the government is yet to react as how much its construction sites have suffered.
However, sources in the Works Department told EARLY TIMES that construction works being executed by the Roads and Buildings department have largely slowed down due to sudden pulling out of the skilled workers. The sources said that the Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has taken a serious view of the situation and is reported to have told Works Minister Gulchain Singh Charak, PHE Minister Dillawar Mir and Housing Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal to look into the issue immediately.
What haunts the people in Kashmir is the reason that current months are the only season when some construction activity can be done there. Most of the people plan their constructions in a manner that project begins by Spring season and ends by Autumn season. However, the labourers rushing home midway have left the Kashmiris in quandary.
Some 40,000 migrant labourers have fled Kashmir in the past three weeks after rebels told them to leave. The mainly Hindu migrants, who work as low-paid masons, carpenters, painters and barbers, began leaving last month when two of them were accused of raping and killing a teenage Muslim girl.
The incident evoked sharp condemnation, with the Muslim-majority region's most powerful militant group Hizbul Mujahedin demanding that all migrant workers leave or face unspecified consequences.
Days later Hizbul retracted the threat and said only "criminal elements should leave" but the exodus has continued from the state, where a nearly two-decade insurgency is raging against New Delhi's rule.
Some migrants said growing local hostility towards them was forcing them to leave. "Since the incident we're being looked down as criminals," Sant Ram, a labourer from Bihar state, said. Ram said he would leave by the end of this month.
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