Srinagar, Aug 20: Expressing serious concern over the non-payment of wages to scheme workers and casual labourers working in different government departments, senior CPI (M) leader Mohamad Yousuf Tarigami urged the concerned authorities to release their pending wages before the forthcoming festival of Eid ul Azha.
Mr Tarigami, who is the MLA from Kulgam, criticized the government for neglecting daily wagers, various kinds of non-regular workers and employees, who have not been paid their wages for months together.
“In Delhi and Haryana Anganwadi workers and helpers are paid Rs 10,000 and Rs 5,000 per month respectively. Unfortunately in J&K these workers and helpers working under the ICDS since 1975 are getting meagre wages of Rs 3600 and Rs 1800 respectively per month for the same work which is sheer injustice to them,” he said.
He said last year the government while presenting the Budget had announced an enhancement of Rs 500 in their honorarium but the order was not implemented so far.
Urging the government to provide a substantial monthly honorarium to ASHA workers who essentially act as backbone of the health structure in rural areas of the state, the CPI (M) leader said the custom of paying poor compensation for to field extreme hard work should come to an end to protect the women folk working in different sectors in Jammu and Kashmir.
The CPI (M) leader said that the issue of regularization of casual labourers was discussed in the State Assembly, but nothing substantial has been done sofar. They are not even being paid their due wages. The NERGA workers are without wages, widows, old aged and destitutes are moving from pillar to post to get their pension, but nobody is listening to their woes.
“CPWs have been working in various schools for many years now with majority of them having put in 20 years of consolidated service on insignificant monthly remuneration. Even in several cases during the 2016 unrest when mysterious burning of schools started, the CPWs guarded the schools. The CPWs should be paid regular wages of Rs 110 per day as assured earlier by the government,” he said.
Similarly, he said SSA teachers are without salaries for the months together. “They are subjected to mental torture for no fault of theirs. A committee was set up by the government to address their issues but nothing concrete has been done sofar, thus compelling them to come on roads with the results the students of poor parents who mainly send their wards to government schools suffer,” he said.
Mr Tarigami urged the state government to release pending wages of its employees and workers before Eid festival positively.
