2,000 have quit jobs, claims Kashmiri Pandit association

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, July 26

Even as Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in the Lok Sabha today that no Kashmiri Pandit working under the Prime Minister’s Development Package has resigned in protest against the killings of fellow community members in the Valley by terrorists, nearly 2,000 employees belonging to the community have resigned in protest against the killings.

On May 12, militants killed Rahul Bhat, a Kashmir Pandit employee, inside his office at Chadoora in Budgam district.

The killing evoked massive protests by the Kashmiri Pandits employed under the PM’s special employment scheme and posted in different parts of Kashmir. Officials said 5,928 employees appointed since 2010 were working under the PM package in J&K at present.

They demanded that they be relocated to Jammu till they were safe in Kashmir. Most of the Pandits are in Jammu and those who have returned to Kashmir have been hitting roads often to protest against the J&K administration.

Nearly 2,000 Pandit employees tendered their resignation to protest the killings, said Ashwini Pandita, a leader of All Minority Employee Association Kashmir. Pandita, a junior engineer, says 300 employees had resigned but until today, the government had not accepted the resignation of any employee. Nearly 320 families had left the Sheikpora camp for Jammu, but most of them returned because the education of their children was getting affected, Pandita said.

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