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हिन्दी 
People’s Conference president Sajad Lone on Sunday targeted the Omar Abdullah led J&K government over the election promise of regularisation of daily wagers, wondering about the working and slow pace of the committee formed by the government over the issue.
Lone questioned about the status of the committee which was formed to look into the regularisation of an estimated 61,000 daily wagers. “What is the status of committee? How many meetings of the committee have taken place?,” he said in a long post on social networking site X.
Lone wondered whether any research was conducted on the committees formed over the issue in the past governments. “What research is being done in these committees that four to five governments have set up and no result have come out yet. Is it not true that 4 to 5 back to back meetings of the committee and the issue will be resolved,” Lone questioned.
In March, chief minister Omar Abdullah had announced a high-powered panel headed by chief secretary Atal Dulloo with the sole motive to come up with a roadmap for addressing the issue of regularising daily wagers, ad hoc workers and casual labourers across Jammu and Kashmir. The announcement had come after a massive protest by the casual employees across J&K.
In an order on March 20, the government had mandated the committee to “examine various issues, including humanitarian, legal and financial related to the regularisation of casual, seasonal labourers or other workers etc in Jammu and Kashmir, and suggest a comprehensive way forward.”
Lone also questioned how the government was going to resolve the financial implications. “As on date the daily wagers are paid ₹9,000/ month per person. For 61,000 daily wagers the total salary bill as on date should be ₹658 crore approx. We will assume that the government will pay minimum salary, which is ₹27,580 approx. So extra to be paid is: 27580-9000 = 18,580. approx. For 61,000 daily wagers the extra finances needed will be ₹1,356 crore per annum appx. In case it stretches to 1,00,000 daily wagers, extra finances needed will be ₹1,858 cr per year appx,” he said.
“Where are the funds? Has any allocation been made in the budget in anticipation of regularisations,” he said.
Lone also wanted to know about those who are attaining age of 60. “In case the government manages to leverage funds for regularisation then what would be the fate of those who will attain 60 years of age before the decision or already have. Is there a date set retrospectively to include those who have attained the age of 60 years. Ideally all should be included,” he said.
He also said: “Is government waiting for daily wagers to attain the superannuation age during the gestation period of committee to get rid of them.”
He said that financially there is no clue that the government is looking for extra cash to pay regularised daily wagers. “And the committee is moving at a snail’s pace. Can the government tell us of any impediments that they face? Are there constitutional impediments? Have they over-promised constitutionally? Meaning are they facing problems in fulfilling this promise because of the UT status,” he questioned
“Or have they over-promised unethically. Meaning they made a promise which they knew they were not going to fulfil,” he wanted to know.
