By Owais Gul
Srinagar: Making the survive further miserable to the casual labourers and land donors of Public Health Engineering (PHE) department, the government has failed to release the monthly wages of casual labourers and land donors from past 21 months.
Besides, the daily wagers and ITI workers of the department have also been left to lurch as the administration has not released their monthly wages from past five months.
Kashmir Public Health Engineering Joint Employees Association (KPHEJEA) on Monday held a symbolic protest here at Srinagar’s Press Enclave to demand release of wages which according to them are withheld from past 21 months.
Led by its president Sajjad Ahmad Paray, the protesters assembled at Press colony and chanted slogans in favour of the demands of thousands of casual labourers, daily wagers, ITI workers and land donors. The protesters were carrying banners reading slogans.
Parray while talking to INS said that the government has utterly failed to release the wages of thousands of workers, labourers of the department. “Delaying tactics are being used to withhold the salaries further. We have been pushed to the walls,” he said.
He said that it is unfortunate that the government didn’t release the wages of workers and labourers even on the holy festival Eid. “Our families are sufferings. Children are being forced to stay at home due to non-clearance of pay. The lives of patients in our families are being risked. Our life has virtually turned into hell,” he said.
Parray told INS that the government is pushing their families towards starvation. “We demand the Governor Satya Pal Malik led administration to look into the matter at an earliest so that we could heave a sigh of relief,” he said.
Meanwhile, Parray said that the association has decided to lockdown all the PHE divisions, offices, sub offices across the Valley here on September 27 to mark a protest against the government’s delaying tactics.
