Deputy Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Surinder Choudhary, today said that the government will regularise daily wagers amid an uproar over lathi-charge on the protesting employees of Jal Shakti Department, who were demanding the release of wages and regularisation in jobs.
Noisy scenes were witnessed in the Assembly as the members, cutting across party lines, raised the use of force and detention of protesting daily wage employees of the Jal Shakti Department.
BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa raised the issue in the Assembly and was supported by other party members in urging the government to address the matter.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary said, ” The National Conference appointed the daily wagers and we will also regularise them. What has not been done in 10 years, we will do in 5 years.”
The Deputy Chief Minister acknowledged that the issue of daily wagers was a humanitarian one and that their families were facing difficult times. ” It is not only a financial issue. Today their children are on the streets, some have died and others have retired,” he said.
Ruling party MLAs also questioned why the opposition had failed to regularise these workers in the past, leading to a heated exchange in the the Assembly following which the BJP MLAs staged a walkout over the issue.
