Muzamil Shah
Srinagar: Hundreds of members of All Jammu and Kashmir Daily Wagers Estates Employees Association staged a protest demanding regularisation of their services on Wednesday in Srinagar.
The protesters said that hundreds of daily wagers were working in the department from more than twenty years and never raised voice ‘thinking authorities would address their issues themselves’. “Government has forced us to come out on streets because we believe that we are being exploited by working twenty-four-hours a day,” Nazir Gilkar said.
“There are around 300 casual workers and around 13 have died either by committing suicide or falling prey of physiological diseases as they were not able to meet the requirements of their family,” Gilkar said..
Another protester said that no one can raise a family with a sum of rupees 4500 hundred. He said that markets rates have gone much high but the salary has remained same from several years. “Tell us what shall we do? How can we feed our family and kids? We request authorities to think about us,”, protester who identified himself as Mushtaq Ahmad Rather said