Thousands of employees begin days long strike in held Kashmir
SRINAGAR (SANA): Work in all the government offices remained paralyzed on Tuesday in response to the five-day strike call given by Joint Consultative Committee (JCC) to demand release of the arrears of 6th Pay Commission.
Work in all the government and semi government offices including educational institutions was affected in all three regions of the State. Due to the strike, healthcare also suffered as Outdoor Patient Department in all the hospitals remained closed and patients had to return home without being attended by the doctors.
Hundreds of patients and their attendants, not aware about the strike, were seen waiting outside the OPDs of different Hospitals.
The employees of other government departments, including Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution (CA and PD), Power Development Department (PDD), Water Works (WW), Public Health Engineering (PHE), Drainage, Roads and Buildings department also stayed away from work in support of the strike.
Talking to Rising Kashmir, Employees Joint Action Committee chairman Khursheed Alam said the government was in a position to fulfill their long pending demands. “We were forced to call the strike, which evoked total response in all three regions of State. Some bureaucrats are trying to sabotage our struggle, but we won’t allow them to succeed,” he said.
He, however, said they were ready to negotiate with the government if later shows sincerity. “We are demanding what government promised us in an agreement eight months back,” Alam said.
The EJAC leader said the employees would stage protests across the State from March 12. “On March 13, protests will be held in Srinagar, Jammu and Ladakh regions. After that, we will sit and chalk out future strategy,” he said.
EJAC-Q spokesman Farooq Ahmad Trali said if something concrete comes up from the government, they would call off the strike. “We are ready to call off the strike if government agrees to release the arrears in three installments. Otherwise, we will go for an indefinite strike if our demands are not met”.
Besides demanding release of arrears, the employees are demanding enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60, regularization of adhoc, daily wagers and temporary employees, conversion of COLA into DA and increase in House Rent Allowances.
EJAC-K chairman said all their demands are old. “The government should fulfill the demands made in the agreement.”
Official sources told Rising Kashmir, the government was seriously considering the demand of enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60. “This will help government to save Rs 400 to 500 crore annually, which is being spent on pensionary benefits of employees,” sources said.
“However, government is facing serious reservations and objections from unemployed youth. The unemployed youth feel if retirement age is extended, job opportunities for them would be closed for longer period,” they said.
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