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Instead of issuing diktats, L-G should relocate Pandit employees: Mehbooba
Endorsing the protesting Pandit staffers’ demands, Mehbooba said that the L-G should try to know their hardships and find a way out, but he issued a diktat that their salaries will not be released unless they join their duties (in Kashmir)
After Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha told protesting Kashmiri Pandit employees that they would not be paid for sitting at home, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday asked the L-G to not force the staffers to return to Kashmir.
Endorsing the protesting Pandit staffers’ demands, she said, “The L-G should try to know their hardships and find a way out, but he issued a diktat that their salaries will not be released unless they join their duties (in Kashmir). All of us have suffered (because of militancy), but Pandits suffered more. Recently, targeted killings also took place in Kashmir. Therefore, the issue needs to be looked into with right earnest, and for sometime their demands should be conceded.”
The PDP president said that the agitating staffers should only be asked to return once the situation normalises. “They should not be forced to go to Kashmir. For now, a middle path should be explored. They are facing hardships for months. The LG should look into their issue in right earnest,’ she added.
On Friday, J&K BJP chief Ravinder Raina had ‘vehemently’ appealed LG to meet agitating Pandit employees and reserved category employees at the Raj Bhawan.
A few days ago, Sinha had asserted that all necessary measures have been taken for the safety of the minority community employees, including Kashmiri Pandits serving in the Valley and sent out a “loud and clear” message to those protesting for transfer: “no salary for sitting at home.”
Cong slams admin for ‘unsympathetic approach’
Slamming the administration for its “unsympathetic approach,” Jammu and Kashmir Pardesh Congress Committee president Vikar Rasool Wani said, “Targeted killings forced them to seek relocation to safer zones for the past few months. The party fully supports concern of the agitating employees and seeks immediate and urgent measures in this regard including relocation to safer zones, including Jammu and release of their pending salaries immediately, otherwise the party will join their agitation.”
On December 7, Union minister Nityanand Rai had said in the Rajya Sabha that 14 people belonging to minority communities, including three Kashmiri Pandits, were killed in J&K so far this year.
