SRINAGAR: Bharatiya Janata Party Jammu and Kashmir President Ravinder Raina Friday said that the party won’t let Kashmiri pandits, Dogras and other reserved category employees posted in Kashmir become “sacrificial lambs”. These employees, who have abandoned work since May 12, are on protest in Jammu and want their relocation outside Kashmir.
Addressing protesting employees from the communities, Raina said that Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s recent statement against these employees might have come because the Babus (Administrative Officers) in Kashmir wouldn’t have presented the real situation.
LG Sinha had earlier this week said that the migrant, reserved category and other employees posted in Kashmir from Jammu won’t be paid salaries if they sit at home.
The statement had drawn criticism from these employees who on Thursday protested outside the BJP headquarters in Jammu alleging that LG was appointed by the party-led central government in Delhi.
Raina who reached out to the protesters, seeking relocation from Kashmir valley, appealed to LG Sinha to invite these employees and “at least” listen to their story.
He said that BJP’s two national general secretaries would be visiting the protesting employees tomorrow. “We have talked to Delhi and If need be we are ready to take representatives from among these employees directly to Delhi.”
Many Dogras – mostly SCs – and Kashmiri Pandits employees returned to Jammu following the killing of Rajni Bala. A resident of Samba district, Bala was shot dead at a school in south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on May 31.
The PM package employees who have also been on a strike in the valley for the past seven months following the killing of their colleague Rahul Bhat on May 12 have intensified the agitation by holding protests.
Bhat, a clerk, was shot dead inside the tehsildar’s office in Chadoora tehsil of Budgam district.
Reports appearing in the media suggest that these two categories of employees numbering around 10,000 are not working since May and this has impacted the output of the government in Kashmir. Initially, they were getting salaries – while being in protest. However, LG Sinha has asserted that they will not be getting any salary as they are sitting at home.
