Omkar Dattatray
Undoing of the PM package employees bond is the need of the hour and therefore the signing of the bond at the time of appointment should be done away with to ensure equality and fair play. The undue and illegal requirement of signing of the bond is ab-initio void as it is unlawful as well as unconstitutional and thus the requirement of the signing of the bond should be rescinded so that the package employees are also treated at par with the other non package employees and the injustice met with the package employees is given a good-bye. The signing of the bond at the time of appointment of the package employees is an unlawful process and requirement and therefore this requirement should be nullified for the sake of equity and fair play. Asking the package employees to sign a bond to the effect that they will not claim their transfer outside Kashmir valley during their entire service carrier is travesty of the situation and under pressure the package employees are forced to sign a bond as an agreement with the Government which makes these hapless package employees to obey the directions of the government and not to claim any transfer outside Kashmir. This non-transfer point in the agreement is the gross injustice to these employees as they unlawfully are deprived of the right of transfer to Jammu division. Thus it is sheer injustice with the package employees that the government takes the benefit of the helplessness of these employees and makes them to enter into a bond at the time of appointment, which is a negation and violation of the service rules and therefore to ensure that there is no violation of the service rules the signing of the bond at the time of the initial appointment should be revoked so that there is no injustice with these employees. Therefore there is great and urgent need of the revocation of the requirement of signing of the bond by the package employees so that they are not deprived of their rights given under the service rules. Thus the illegal and unlawful act of signing of the bond by the package employees goes against the civil service rules and so is the deprivation of the rights given and guaranteed by the service rules. Besides the signing of the bond is violation of the constitutional provisions and therefore it is unconstitutional as well and therefore the only need is to order its revocation so that there is no injustice with the package employees and they are treated at par with the other non package employees. It is pertinent to mention here that the package employees have not violated the service agreement/ bond but it stands violated by the government. The government has agreed that it will provide government t accommodation to the package employees at the time of their appointment and this point of the bond was grossly violated by the government as it failed to provide much needed accommodation to the package employees ,with the result majority of the package employees have no government accommodation and they are forced to have private rented accommodation in every nook and corner of the valley. Thus when the government has itself violated an important clause of the agreement ,there is no sense in complying with other clauses of the agreement by the package employees. But still the package employees have not violated any clause of the agreement entered with the government. When the government has violated the agreement in so for as it relates to the provision of the accommodation to the package employees so they in a way have broken the agreement entered at the time of the appointment by the package employees and so the package employees have been left with no choice but to seek their transfer to outside the Kashmir to save their precious lives. Therefore it fallows that there should be no blanket ban on the right of transfer to the package employees and they should be given the right of their transfer to Jammu division, but the government is not allowing them to transfer outside the Kashmir. All this shows that the package employees are bonded labors and slaves as they have no service rights as well as the constitutional rights so they serve in most callous and oppressed manner. The fact of the matter is that the package employees are no bonded labors in theory and on papers but in actual practice they are worse than bonded labors as their condition is worse than the bonded labors. Thus, it is great injustice with the package employees and so the need is that the government should order rescinding of the bond retrospectively so that the justice is given to package employees. So what is needed is that the bond in question should be revoked and nullified that too retrospectively to give justice to the package employees and absolve them of the requirement of the signing of the bond. The government wants them to serve under duress and threat to their lives but does not allow them the right of transfer and this is sheer an d gross in justice with the hapless package employees. Thus the practice of signing of the bond at the time of initial appointment by the package employees should be shown the door and the package employees should not be asked to sign the bond which is illegal and against the public policy. What is needed is that all the employees including the package employees should be treated equally and this requires that the system of the signing of the bond should be dispensed with so that all employees are treated equally and there is no discrimination with any employee. The act of signing of the bond gives birth to discrimination as it makes discrimination between different classes of the employees, meaning thereby that there is discrimination between the non-package and package employees and this gross discrimination should be rectified for the cause of equity and fair play. Therefore the practice of singing of the bond should be dispensed so that there is no difference and discrimination between the non package employees and the package employees. The revocation of the bond should precede the process of relocation. Therefore the dispensing of the illegal bond will pave way for the relocation of the package employees for which these hapless and unfortunate employees are agitating for a long time. In fact the revocation and rescinding of the bond is the very first step towards meeting the genuine and only demand of the relocation of the package employees. So what is needed is that the bond system should be given a good bye and the relocation of the package employees to Jammu division should be given a top priority. But the BJP government of the centre and LG administration of UT is not paying any heed towards the agitating employees. It is very unfortunate that the human rights violation is taking place because of the signing the unlawful bond. The indifferent Government of NDA headed by BJP has unfortunately made the relocation of the package employees as a prestige and ego issue and as such they seem unlikely to accede to the genuine demand of the relocation outside the valley. The relocation of the package employees will not weaken the policy of the return and rehabilitation of the uprooted Kashmiri Pandits and the relocation as such is not the negation of the return and rehabilitation policy. In short, the government should rescind the signing of the bond and order the relocation of the package employees outside Kashmir valley so that their survival and safety is ensured.
(The author is a Columnist and
Social Activist).
