Jammu- The BJP on Friday expressed its “full support” to Kashmiri Pandit and Dogra employees to their demand for relocation to Jammu from Kashmir and said the party will not allow them to become “sacrificial goats”.
The employees are on a strike here for the past over seven months in the wake of the targeted killings of their community members by militants in the Valley. They are demanding that they be relocated to Jammu and they will perform their duties from there.
“I assure you that we will not allow you to become scapegoats. You cannot perform duties in such a situation,” Jammu and Kashmir BJP chief Ravinder Raina told protesting employees at the party office here.
“The party will not allow you to become sacrificial goats”, he added.
His remarks come two days after Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha said reserved category employees (Dogra) cannot be transferred to Jammu and those (KP employees) sitting at home will not get salaries.
J-K BJP chief Raina said the demand of the protesting employees was “justified”.
“We are with you regarding your demand for relocation (to Jammu). We support this demand and it should be fulfilled. There should be a transfer policy and they (employees) should be relocated,” he said.
These employees were serving in Kashmir for the past 15 years and did not lag behind in performing their duties honestly and with dedication, but the “current situation is such that even a single bullet fired in Kashmir portrays us in a bad picture,” Raina said.
Taking a dig at the Lt Governor administration for “turning a blind eye” towards the protesting employees, he said, “I appeal to the Lieutenant Governor to pay attention to the grievances and demands of these employees. He should announce a relocation policy for KP employees.”
The J-K BJP chief also said he has raised the matter with the party leadership in Delhi and two “national general secretaries are coming to meet you and get a briefing over the issue”.
“We will fight the situation. They have performed their jobs in the best way. But we will not allow them to get killed in their chairs (in their offices by terrorists in Kashmir),” Raina said.
He said Kashmir was in a state of war in 1990 and Kashmiri Pandits, though they were forced out of their homes, kept the Indian flag flying high.
Angered over Lieutenant Governor Sinha’s remarks about stopping their salaries, Dogra and Kashmiri Pandit employees gathered at the BJP headquarters here and staged a sit-in to press for their demands.
“Let them stop salaries. Unless our demand for framing a transfer policy is met, we won’t join (our duties). Salaries are not more important than life,” one of the protesters said.
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