Hundreds of daily-wagers in public health department on Monday staged a protest demonstration at Press Enclave to demand the release of wages.
The aggrieved protestors who assembled under the banner of Kashmir PHE joint employees association said that they are unable to pay the tuition fee of their children and don’t have enough to feed their families.
“Our wages have been withheld from past 21 months. We are at the verge of starvation. Our children have been asked to not come school till they clear their tuition fee in respective schools,” said Ajaz Ahmad, a protestor.
One of the protestors, who wished not to be named, said that he had to sell the jewellery of her spouse to feed the family and meet the school expenses of his children.
“We are getting peanuts from the government against our hard work. The reason for working on these peanuts is always a hope for better future by getting regularization of our services,” he said.
He added that as “these peanuts” have been withheld by the authorities from past several months, their families suffer.
“This is all against the principles of justice. You (government) make us to work like anything but at the end of the day deny us our remuneration on time,” he added.
Authorities have not released monthly wages of the PHE daily-wagers and ITI workers from the past five months, while the wages of the need base casual labourers and land owners have been withheld from past 21 months.
Kashmir PHE joint employees’ association president Sajad Ahmad Parray said that it was a symbolic protest today to wake up the authorities.
“We are going to lockdown all the PHE offices on September 27 in case our withheld wages are not released forthwith. 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 festival Eid.
The association appealed to Governor NN Vohra to personally look into the matter and directed concerned officials to release the wages and also expedite the process for regularization of their services.