Omkar Dattatray
The hapless Package employees are suffering from mental trauma and frustration since they were forced to leave Kashmir where they were contributing to the national development and were they were working across the length and breadth of Kashmir. They were forced to fled from valley under the threat to their life, limb and dignity and migrated to Jammu and other places to save their life as there is continuous threat perception in Kashmir. Day in and day out threat warnings are circulated through the social media and the Kashmiri Pandits and non-locals are being targeted and killed for no fault of theirs except that they do not subscribe to the thinking and destructive philosophy of the crusaders of Jihad.
The package employees are feeling utter disgust and frustration and depression as their life, limb and livelihood is under threat and there is total uncertainty in their life and employment.
The atmosphere and ground reality is not at all conducive for their living and working in Kashmir as there is constant threat and risk to their lives and thus they were left with no choice but to flee the valley for their survival and life and take refuge in Jammu. The package employees are under utter frustration as their genuine demand of relocation outside the Kashmir valley is not addressed by the insensitive NDA government of centre and the LG administration of the UT. From June 12, 2022 the package employees are on indefinite strike in the migrant camps in Kashmir and at the premises of the relief and rehabilitation commissioner migrants Jammu.
Thus the package employees are on protest from the last over three months but the government is not paying any heed to the protesting package employees with the result they are feeling neglect, disown, frustration and depression. In Jammu under the scorching heat and the torrential rains the package employees are continuing their indefinite protest but it has n o effect upon the powers and their only and genuine demand of relocation /shifting to Jammu province is not heeded by the government with the result that these unfortunate sons of mother India are left in lurch to fend for themselves and the centre NDA government headed by the BJP and the LG administration is not paying any attention to the genuine and the only demand of their relocation to Jammu division till the ground situation becomes normal in Kashmir.
But it is the height of injustice that the centre government as well as the LG’s administration is maintaining a stoic silence over the genuine demand of their life and survival because their life is under attack and threat in Kashmir and their protests in Kashmir and Jammu are ignored and overlooked by the powers.
The BJP government of centre is maintaining ego and is not paying any attention towards the genuine demand of the right to life as guaranteed by the Article 21 of the constitution. PM package employees are not demanding anything illegal, unlawful, unusual and unattainable thing but are merely demanding only the right to life which is under constant threat in valley.
Thus the centre and UT government should resolve the genuine issue of the survival of the package employees and start a dialogue with the leaders of the protesting employees to find an amicable solution to their only and genuine demand of the relocation which the government seems in no mood to accept.
The powers should accede to the genuine and only demand of the relocation outside the Kashmir so that these unfortunate and innocent youth are saved from the bullets of the terrorists who give threat warnings to the Kashmiri Pandits calling them as the stooge and agents of the India. Under the prevailing circumstances’ the package employees cannot live and perform their duties in Kashmir as they are becoming soft targets of the terrorists and so the government should show magnanimity and allow the package employees to perform their duties in Jammu province so that a succor and relief is provided to them.
The insensitive centre government should come out of the ego and accept the only and genuine demand of the relocation of the package employees without further delay to heal the scars And wounds of the PM employment package employees who are under duress and frustration as their genuine and only demand of relocation is falling on the deaf ears of the government. The centre government is under an erroneous notion that the Kashmiri is only of India when the PM package employees are kept working in Kashmir no matter that they are killed by the terrorists.
The government should understand and appreciate that there are nationalistic Kashmiris who are with India and are keeping the national tricolor a foot and therefore it is wrong to presume that the Kashmir is of India till the Kashmiri Pandits are living and working there. Therefore the Package employees should not b e made sacrificial goats by the secular bosses of India and thus they should not be made cannon fodders to the roaring guns of the terrorists.
The Package employees should not coerced to live and perform their duties across Kashmir at the cost of their precious lives as all know it fully including the governments that the ground situation is totally not conducive for the living and working of the package employees and therefore the only simple way is to shift them to Jammu division and utilize the services of these employees in Jammu.
The Jammuites have no problem if the package employees are adjusted in Jammu because all know it well that the package employees posts are supernumerary posts and the budget for them comes from the centre and their posts are shadow posts and will not in any way affect the Jammuites. Therefore the centre government should come out of its slumber and accept the genuine demand of the right to life and survival which stands guaranteed to the citizens by the constitution.
Thus without any delay the government should show sanity and order the relocation of the package employees to Jammu division till the situation limps to total. normalcy. So the centre government should come to the rescue of the package employees and order their temporary relocation to Jammu division till normalcy returns to Kashmir.
It is the responsibility of the powers to create conducive situation for living and working of all the people as today the Kashmiri Pandits, other Hindu minorities and even the Muslim non local laborers are targeted and killed and there is no guarantee of safety to the lives of the Package employees and so they need to be shifted to Jammu division for the time being.
The package employees have every right to life as all others have got and therefore the package employees should be ensured the right to life and survival. The PM employment package is an economic package and the government is falsely associating it with the return and rehabilitation of the Pandit community. From the inception of the employment package in 2010 not even a single Kashmiri Pandit family has been rehabilitated and therefore it is wrong to call the employment package as return and rehabilitation package.
Therefore there is urgent need to delink the employment package from the return and rehabilitation policy. Otherwise the employment package is bound to fail as it is happening today. To conclude it can be said that the package employees should not be allowed to rotten as they are facing mental depression and frustration because their future is very bleak and uncertain. So the government should accept their only and genuine demand of relocation /shifting to Jammu division till the situation becomes normal in Kashmir.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist).