Urge LG To Fulfill Long Pending Demands
Srinagar: The contractual lecturers working in the higher education department on Sunday urged the Jammu and Kashmir administration to regularize them and release their wages pending since August last year.
In a statement issued here, the Jammu Kashmir College Contractual Association (JKCCA) said that scores of lecturers were engaged by the higher education department in 2003, but 17 years down the line, the government is yet to regularize their services. The lecturers, the statement said have served on low wages even in far-flung areas like Gurez, Tanghdar, Leh, Kargil, Samba, Kathua and Poonch.
“From time to time, different governments in their respective period assured us job policy verbally but nothing was on paper. Most of the candidates working in the system have crossed the upper age limit or are at the verge of becoming highly qualified overage unemployed youth,” said JKCCA member Dr Mohd Yousuf Nengroo.
Barring Higher Education Department, Nengroo said persons who completed 7 years of their service in other departments were regularized under the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act, 2010.
He said many of the candidates felt job insecurity and moved to court in 2014 to seek justice. The Court, Nengroo said provided relief to the contractual lectures and ordered the maintenance of status quo in their favour,” he said.
Bashir Ahmad Dar, another member of JKCCA said that the then Commissioner Secretary Higher Education Department Sarita Chauhan assured to meet the genuine demand of the lecturers.
“Even the former Principal Secretary Higher Education Department Dr Asghar Hassan Samoon also assured us the same. It was possible in his period that our salaries were hiked from Rs.12000 to Rs.22000 and Rs.18000 to Rs.28000. unfortunately he was transferred,” Dar said.
He alleged that since last year the lecturers were being ‘degraded and harassed’ after Talat Parvez Rohella and Prof. Yaseen Shah were given charge as Commissioner Secretary Higher Education and Director Colleges
“Since last eight months we are in miserable conditions. They started to target 2500 contractual lecturers by issuing orders like no winter or summer vacations. They degraded the nomenclature from academic arrangement to need-based academic arrangement,” Dar said.
He said that despite court orders, Secretary didn’t release the salaries of lecturers since August 2019.
The JKCAA members urged Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu and Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam to look into the matter and release their pending 8-month salaries and fulfill the promises made by precious governments of regularizing them.
When Kashmir Observer contacted Divisioner Commissioner Kashmir P Kondbarao Pole, he assured early action in this matter.
“I will talk to the concerned officials and will look into the matter personally”, he said.
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