Daily wagers’ issue not taken up during J&K cabinet meeting

The meeting holds significance as it marks the first gathering of the council at its complete nine-member strength following the recent induction of four new ministers

Following the maiden meeting of the expanded council of ministers chaired by chief minister Omar Abdullah here on Friday, tribal affairs minister Javed Ahmed Rana said that although the issue of regularising daily wagers was not on the agenda, the elected government and the people of Jammu and Kashmir—including daily wagers—continue to suffer due to the dual power system in the Union territory.

In February this year, the National Conference (NC) government informed the legislative assembly during the budget session that J&K has over one lakh casual and daily wagers, whose regularisation was under a review. (HT File)

“Today, the cabinet took up proposals for land allotment to the Union home ministry for the subsidiary intelligence bureau (SIB), promotion cases, and electricity grid stations. The issue of daily wagers was not on the agenda. Ironically, due to the dual power system in the UT, this government and the people of J&K—including daily wagers—continue to suffer,” said Rana.

Rana said that land transfer to SIB, with deliberations on a host of departmental issues was taken up.

The meeting holds significance as it marks the first gathering of the council at its complete nine-member strength following the recent induction of four new ministers.

Besides the CM, deputy CM Surinder Choudhary, ministers Sakina Itoo, Javed Ahmad Rana, Javid Ahmad Dar, Ali Mohammad Sagar, Mir Saifullah, Shamim Firdous and Altaf Ahmad Wani also attended the meeting.

In February this year, the National Conference (NC) government informed the legislative assembly during the budget session that J&K has over one lakh casual and daily wagers, whose regularisation was under a review.

According to the government, “A total of 1,00,501 casual, daily rated and other workers have been registered across various departments through Aadhaar-based biometric identification and skill profiling.”

According to official data tabled in the House in response to multiple questions by members, registered workers include 69,696 casual laborers, 8,534 seasonal laborers, 8,836 daily-rated/work-charged employees, 3,092 part-time workers, 156 CIC operators, 5,757 NYC hamals/drivers of the FCS&CA department, 1,929 persons engaged under the hospital development fund, 2,153 part-time sweepers, and 348 settlement assistants of the revenue department.

Region-wise figures revealed that 57,390 workers belonged to the Kashmir division, while 40,077 came from the Jammu division. Among departments, the highest number of such engagements were in PHE/I&FC (38,585), followed by the power development department (13,616), education (12,646), forest (8,317), and public works (R&B) (6,801).

The government had informed the House that a committee has been constituted headed by the chief secretary to examine the issue of regularisation.

The CM, on the floor of the House, said that his government plans to initiate the regularisation of daily wage workers during the current year. On November 2, when Darbar Move offices reopened in Jammu, hundreds of daily wagers, including Asha workers staged a protest march.

The protesting daily wagers demanded regularisation of their services and implementation of the Minimum Wages Act. During the protest, they also scuffled with police personnel following which the president of the All J&K Daily Wagers Sangharsh Samiti, Sunny Kant Chib, was detained.