Tussle between Employees and the Government in Jammu and Kashmir

This is first time that moving employees of Civil Secretariat have moved from Jammu to Srinagar without salary. Thanks to almighty that they had received Darbar Move TA otherwise it would have been difficult for them to shift to Srinagar alongwith their paraphernalia which they take alongwith while moving from Srinagar to Jammu. We would have otherwise seen them as stranded passengers in Jammu who would have not been stranded their for bad weather / road but for money. Again it seems to be first time that Employees Union has badly been battered by the Government's alien attitude and the unwise strategy of Employee Unions. In addition to it like our other institutions whether political or social, their being a divided lot further deterioted their seemingly just cause.

In the history of contemporary Kashmir due to poltical and other reasons the different forms of Unions whether it is Labour Union, Employees Union or Students Union they have been weak or non-existant. The people at Delhi who are managers of Kashmir Affairs have liked here not to have strong Labour or Students organizations. In other developed or developing nations we have seen time and again the greater role of these organizations in nation making. We have seen at many places the leaders of these Unions / Organizations often are elected to the highest seat of power. Their work in these organizations act as training period for them in order to take bigger roles in the running of their nation. History is testimony that Communist Revolution in Soviet Union could come only due to long and energetic struggle by the Labour Unions there. We see how strongly Student Unions play their role in even Asian Countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and in mainland India. In Assam we now about the role played by the Students Union.

In Jammu and Kashmir which is suffering from one of the biggest disease that is being a disputed territory and people aspirations yet to be met, the different forms of Union have never emerged from infancy. Besides,the political will of New Delhi that none of the socio - political organization should get stronger enough to challenge its hegemony, there are other reasons also like rampant corruption in the leadership of different employee unions, number of divisions in between them and overall everyone of them having a diverse agenda. We see Civil Secretariat Union who was first to break the strike seem to have different agenda that is Secretariat centric and we have seen they often not supported the various calls given by different Unions outside. Even outside there are tens of Unions each with its big and small leaders. Not only this even among the employees there is no unanamity what to seek from Government. Those employees who are reaching upper ages are admant to have the retirement age extended upto 60 years whileas most of those employees who are at the start of their career oppose this move vehemently. Even a big segment of people also opposes it due to growing unemployment in the State. Contractual Employees, Daily Rated Workers, ReTs so on and so forth have different priorities due to their interests. Gazetted Employees Associations had kept themselves aloof from it and have not supported the strike call of the Employee Unions. KAS Association too is said to have kept its path separate as its Office bearers had been given plum postings for not joining the Empoyee Unions. Police who is equally beneficient of all what employee will get from their struggle are seen busy carrying orders of beating the employees to pulp. In addition to it due to lack of leadership skills, ideology based leadership and broad organizations skills, Employee Unions had to get sour sweets. They were evading from arrest on imposition of ESMA when a PIL came into High Court and was decided against Employees. They had no time and even had no prior hindsight to have a strong legal body to defend their justified stand against Government. The time of their strike even was wrong, they collaborated with the Government to have a fine Assembly Session for more than a month and even they didnot raise their voice in the pre-budget session so that on feeling heat the Government would have made some arrangements in the Budget itself. Employee Unions should sit down and learn lessons from their follies which not only put employees on the back and made the public to suffer.

On the other hand, successive Governments which already have failed on other fronts like the issue of autonomy, human rights, employment generation, improvement of agriculture, food security, good governance, controlling inflation etc here also have not been able to do any thing. We can see Government has not been able to chalk out any mode to pay the money to its serving employees. For almost more than a year they have not been able settle the issues of the people who help to run it. Irony of the fact is, Government had no problem in paying the IAS Officers the dues on account of Sixth Pay Commission who recieved whopping arrears, making the double/triple hike in the salaries of Legislators, lavish spending by the Ministers / babus while using Government vehicles, Accomodations, Food and other benefits for personal and family business, unproductive trips in and outside country so on and so forth. Rather than decreasing its unproductive expenditure and plan how to pay the legitimate dues of the employees in installments if not in one go, Government has chosen a dictator like attitude by way of reportedly not paying the employees for striking days and refusing the lift ESMA even when employees have joined duties. It is due to inefficiency of the Government that the employees have to register their protest, genuinely when markets which Government is not able to control are touching a new height. This attitude again proves that the Government is not pro people but anti people. It is the salary money of the 5 lakh employees of the State which keeps the economy going on here by stopping the salary of the employees is not only increasing the hardship of the people here but also affecting the State economy. Government should leave the path of war, as it is not Pakistan they are fighting with, but its own employees who are running it. Government should come out of its own infightings, withdraw ESMA as early as possible and release salary of the employee without any further cuts or delay. Government should definitely make considerable cut in its unproductive expenditure and chalk out a plan to pay the Sixth Pay Commission dues in installments if not in one go.