New Delhi, Mar 2: After working as casual labourers for 17 years, as many as 68 such workers of Centaur Hotel in Srinagar would be regularised now with the Air India management having issued instructions in this regard.
 The decision to regularise these employees came after senior CPI (M) leader Sitaram Yechury held detailed discussions with Civil Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi yesterday.
 Instructions were issued by Air India CMD Arvind Jadhav last night to regularise 68 casual employees, union representative Javed Ahmed Pandit told PTI here.
 He said both Yechury and senior Congress leader Saifuddin Soz had been holding deliberations with the Ministry, including former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, over the past several months.
 The hotel, which is run by Air India's wholly-owned subsidiary Hotel Corporation of India, was to be handed over by Air India to a consortium led by Jammu and Kashmir government on a management contract, a process which is still pending due to an ongoing court case.
 "Orders have now been issued to regularise them. The Ministry has also adopted a pro-active approach", Yechury said, adding the main concern was to "give confidence to the Kashmiri youth that the Indian people do not just sympathise with them but also take concrete action".
 "Employment opportunities need to be created for them. There has been no private investment in the state and there is an urgent need to increase employment opportunities there. Regularisation of these employees should give confidence to the young people of Kashmir", Yechury, the Chairman of Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, told PTI.
 In the mid-1990s, about 80 temporary workers were "irregularly engaged" in the Centaur Lake View Hotel without following proper procedures, Air India sources said, adding that the officials responsible were subsequently dismissed after CBI investigations.
 The workers, who too were dismissed in 1996, moved the Industrial Tribunal and Labour Court in Srinagar which ruled in their favour.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 2 Mar 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 2 Mar 2011 18:30:00 GMT
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