KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
Former Chief Minister of J&K and the leader of Congress in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad vowed to raise the issue of contractual, ad-hoc, daily wager employees of Kashmir with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the national level.
Addressing the National Youth Corps (NYC) contractual employees whose hunger strike demanding immediate enforcement of cabinet decision 192/Cir/2014 vide order 737-Edu- of 2014 entered the 17th day today, Azad said that he was disappointed with the way injustice was meted out to them.
The NYC contractual employees are demanding regularization of their services. Engaged in 2010 amid popular uprising, the NYC employees were engaged in different departments in J&K government against a salary of Rs 2500 per month.
“The previous government launched several schemes for generating employment, this was one of them,” Azad said before the agitating employees surviving on intravenous and water.
He said that various tehsils and blocks came into existence during the tenure of Omar-led NC-Congress coalition. “It created a situation where thousands of youths could have been absorbed in revenue or other departments,” he said while lamenting that the present dispensation was “letting go this opportunity waste.”
Azad who is scheduled to leave for Delhi today said that he will raise the genuine demands of NYC with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
He also said that last year floods aggravated the unemployment situation of the state. “At a time when we must create more avenues for the employment, present government is doing away with even the existing ones,” he said.
While interacting with the former CM, the agitating employees grieved that PDP president Mehbooba Mufti had once staged a walk out from assembly in favour of this cabinet order. “But now they are reluctant to accept our demands,” they said.
They also alleged that recently when a group of employees went to apprise Mehbooba about their demands, they were stopped outside the gate and disallowed.
Recently, the agitating employees were visited by J&K Minister for Finance, Labour, Employment and Culture, Haseeb Drabu who had promised to redress their demands in one and a half year. Employees, however, refused to call off the strike stating that they would continue the agitation until their demands are met. Around 125 employees have been hospitalized ever since they sat on the protest.
