JAMMU, Jun 20: A joint press conference under the banner of the Jammu and Kashmir Government Employees Joint Action Committee (EJAC-R) was held here today under the chairmanship of its State President, Babu Hussain Malik. The conference was attended by senior trade union leaders including Girdhari Lal Chanda, Yashpaul Sharma, Madan Sangral, Munish Sharma, Pawan Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Arun Sharma, S.R. Rathore, Naresh Kumar, Ramesh Sharma, Kamla Sharma, Meenakshi Sharma, Neeraj Sharma, Vikas Chander, Gurmeet Singh, Jaswant Singh, Sadeeq Mohammad, Veerji Koul, Vimal Singh, Mohammad Lateef Qureshi, Uttam Singh, Anil Singh Salathia, Bhagwan Dass, Sunil Sharma, Shiv Kumar, Sikander Singh and several others.
Addressing the media, the leaders highlighted various issues confronting government employees, pensioners and senior citizens. The speakers alleged that anti-employee policies and rising prices of essential commodities have severely affected the financial condition of serving as well as retired employees. They expressed concern that increasing workload due to a large number of vacant posts in different departments is adversely affecting the health and efficiency of employees.
Babu Hussain Malik stated that employees are being compelled to shoulder additional responsibilities because vacancies are not being filled in a timely manner. He urged the government to take immediate steps to address staffing shortages and safeguard the interests of employees. The participants also appealed to employees across departments to strengthen the organization for future collective action.
The EJAC (R) strongly criticized what it termed the administration’s indifferent attitude towards the genuine demands of employees and pensioners. The organization demanded the immediate re-engagement of disengaged Home Guard personnel and expressed concern over the difficulties being faced in census-related data entry work. The leaders suggested that employees lacking the required technical expertise should be replaced by trained personnel to ensure smooth and accurate data feeding.
The committee reiterated its long-pending demands, including regularization of daily wagers, ad hoc, contractual and consolidated employees, seasonal tribal teachers, Rehbar-e-Khel, Rehbar-e-Janglat workers, Anganwadi workers and helpers, ASHA workers, National Health Mission employees, Home Guards, cooks, HDF workers, helpers to supervisors and ousted casual labourers of the Tourism Department.
The organization also demanded enhancement of medical allowance for employees and pensioners, restoration of the Old Pension Scheme (OPS), removal of pay anomalies in clerical and other cadres, release of the pending 18 months’ Dearness Allowance arrears, implementation of the 8th Pay Commission with benefits to pensioners, release of withheld annual increments of SRO-202 employees, restoration of additional increments for clearing the Secretariat Assistant Course, payment of two-and-a-half days’ withheld salary to Medical and Health employees, merger of 50 percent DA with basic pay before implementation of the 8th Pay Commission, and a complete ban on privatization in government departments.
The leaders warned that if the genuine demands of employees and pensioners continue to be ignored, the organization would be compelled to intensify its struggle in the coming days.