© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, in a “clear message” to agitating Kashmiri Pandit employees and reserved category employees, said no salary would be given to them while they “continue to sit at home”.
“We have paid all of them salary up to August 31, but it cannot be allowed that their salary is released when they continue to sit at home,” Sinha said. “This is a clear message which all shall understand,” he said after reporters asked him about the non-payment of salary to a number of Kashmiri Pandit and reserved category Dogra employees of the Union Territory administration who had left their postings in Kashmir and went to Jammu six months ago following targeted killings of minorities in the Valley by militants. The employees have been agitating in Jammu for the past six months seeking the relocation of their posts outside the Valley.
Sinha said he has full sympathy with the employees, and asserted that the J&K administration is fully prepared to help them and ensure their safety. However, he added, “The minority employees should also keep in mind that they are employees of the Kashmir division… Like a district cadre employee of Poonch cannot come to Jammu, those of Kashmir division, too, cannot be posted here. Everyone should understand this.”
He said the administration had no transfer policy for reserved category employees as of now, and that a committee was examining the matter.
The reserved category employees from Jammu division have been posted in the Kashmir Valley from time to time as part of the inter-district recruitment policy framed in 2006. Over the years, the government appointed 3,000-3,500 people from the Scheduled Castes in Jammu and posted them in the Valley.
The Lt Governor said that while it was true that unfortunate incidents took place, “We have resolved most of their (protesting employees’) problems,” he claimed, saying that they wanted postings at safe places.
“I have had personal interaction with senior officers, and most of them have been posted at district headquarters, while some have been posted at the tehsil headquarters,” he said. “There are some employees in the Rural Development Department who cannot be posted in cities and towns and they have been posted in villages nearer to the cities,” he added.
Apart from this, the administration also made arrangements so that no Kashmiri Pandit or minority community employee is posted alone at any school or any other place in the Valley, and to ensure that there are at least two or three such employees there, Sinha said. “They have just one problem of accommodation, which I accept is their genuine concern. The land has been provided and tenders floated for most of the work. By April, the administration will give 1,200 dwelling units, and next year also, it will give 1,700-1,800 more such units,” he said.
To take care of their security issues, an officer has been appointed in every district, he said, adding that one such officer is posted in his office as well for redressal of their grievances.
