PHE daily wagers protest, want regularisation report tabled in J&K Assembly

Daily wagers of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department on Monday staged a protest here to demand tabling of the report of the committee set up by the Jammu and Kashmir government on regularisation of their services. Hundreds of workers sat on a protest dharna at the Jal Shakti office in the city.

This is the second time in five days that the PHE Employees United Front of Jammu province held protests over the issue. They had earlier held protests on the first day of the Assembly session on October 23.

“We want the government to fulfil our long-pending demand for the regularisation of daily wagers. We want the government to table the report of the committee in the Assembly immediately during the current session,” PHE Employees United Front (Jammu Province) leader Ravi Hans told reporters.

He said that opposition members should also raise the issue and pressure the government to table the report in the House, as the term of the committee had ended in September.

“We do not want to come on the roads and cause inconvenience to the public. But if the government forces us, we will have no option but to hit the roads to press the government for the regularisation of daily wagers and for bringing out a policy,” he said.

Hans noted that the Omar Abdullah government had set up a committee to prepare a report on the regularisation of daily wagers during the last Assembly session.

“When we were on the roads during the last session, the committee was announced by the chief minister, and a period of six months was given to it to table the report. It was to be submitted by September 19, but till now, we do not know the fate of the report,” he said.

The union demanded that the government table the report on regularisation in the Assembly during the current session.

Meanwhile, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti said it is crucial for all MLAs, including those of the ruling NC, to unite to address the issue of regularising daily wage workers in Jammu and Kashmir. “As the J&K Assembly reconvenes, one of the most pressing issues that requires immediate attention is the plight of nearly one lakh daily wagers,” Mufti said in a post on X.

All MLAs must unite so that the workers can receive the dignity and job security they rightfully deserve, she added.

On March 19, the Jammu and Kashmir government had constituted a six-member committee to examine issues related to the regularisation of daily wage workers in the Union Territory.

Abdullah had announced the formation of the committee in the Assembly to address the issue and said that a roadmap would be prepared for presentation in the next budget session.

The committee, headed by the chief secretary, was tasked with examining various issues, including humanitarian, legal, and financial aspects related to the regularisation of casual, seasonal labourers, and other workers in Jammu and Kashmir, and to suggest measures.

There are an estimated 67,000 daily wage workers in various departments across Jammu and Kashmir.