Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 21: The Jammu and Kashmir government has told the Legislative Assembly that a dedicated committee has been tasked with examining humanitarian, legal and financial issues surrounding the regularisation of daily wagers, casual and other temporary workers employed across various government departments.
Responding in writing to a question raised by legislator Javiad Riyaz, the government said the panel has been constituted specifically to look into cases involving casual, seasonal, temporary, contractual and other categories of workers engaged in different departments across the Union Territory.
In reply to a separate question, the government disclosed that 1,00,501 casual and other workers have had their particulars registered so far through an online Aadhaar-based biometric identification and skill-profiling exercise.
The Jammu and Kashmir Casual and Other Workers Regular Engagement Rules, 2017 — notified via SRO 520 dated October 21, 2017 — had laid down a procedure for the regular engagement of casual and other workers across government departments. However, the government noted that the regularisation policy envisaged under SRO-520 subsequently came under review in light of judicial pronouncements on the matter.
As a result, no worker was regularised under the SRO-520 framework during either the 2024-25 or 2025-26 financial years, the government confirmed.
To address the impasse, the government constituted a committee — via Government Order No. 384-JK(CAD) of 2025, dated March 19, 2025 — to examine humanitarian, legal and financial dimensions of the regularisation question for casual, seasonal and other workers in Jammu and Kashmir, and to recommend a comprehensive way forward. |
