DRWs, casual labourers working in TDAs forced to starvation: Harsh
STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Flaying the harassment doled out to the youth in the sphere of employment by the State Government, a contingent of Panthers Party activists led by Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Yashpal Kundal State President Young Panthers along with other leaders staged a protest against Tourism Department seeking release of long pending wages and regularisation of services of DRWs, need based workers and casual labourers working in Tourism Development Authorities (TDAs) at Exhibition Ground Jammu on Monday.
Lambasting the Tourism Department for its nonchalant attitude towards the DRWs, need based workers and casual labourers working in various Tourism Development Authorities in the State, Harsh revealed that the Department of Tourism, J and K being the main developmental, promotional and regulatory arm of the J and K Government had set up Tourism Development Authorities to speed-up infrastructure development in selected tourist resorts Surinsar, Mansar, Patnitop, Parmandal, Utterbehni, Sarthal, Rajouri, Poonch, Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, etc.
He regretted that these authorities had employed thousands of DRWs, need based workers and casual labourers all across State who were forced to work like bonded labourers without paying their meager wages for the last 20-22 months.
Regretting the pitiable plight of such employees rendering their services for more than 8-10 years in the aforesaid Tourism Development Authorities, Harsh Dev Singh vociferously demanded immediate release of long pending wages in their favour besides regularisation of their services. He said that their families had been pushed to starvation and other miseries which was the worst kind of exploitation akin to the human rights violations.
Singh pointed out that there had been consistent influx of domestic and foreign tourists in the State but wondered that how could Tourism Department despite earning revenue from accommodation, food and beverages, recreation and other tourism related activities could divest these lower rung employees of their wages for such a long time.
He said that tourism was mainly dependant on human resource which required personal interaction with the tourists but the miserable plight of the employees working in TDAs had not only affected their performance but also the service delivery.
Yashpal Kundal said that DRWs, need based workers and casual labourers working in TDAs had pinned high hopes with the earlier State Government but they were only made to languish in open protesting for their genuine demands. The NPP leader maintained that they had been rendering their services with great zeal and determination on paltry wages which was withheld for nearly two years and in this kind of scenario sustainable tourism could not be developed in the State. He said that exploitation, harassment and maltreatment of these employees as mere expendables shall not be tolerated by the Panthers Party and vowed to assure justice to them at all costs.
Prominent persons among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Pratap, Naresh Chib, Sham Gorkha, Chetan Sharma, Neeraj Gupta, Sewa Singh Bali, Parshotam Parihar, Manoj Gupta, Anil Rakwal, Sardar N P Singh, Baldev Singh Mankotia, Vivek Anand, Sanju, Khajoor Singh, Inder Pal, Kailash Mohan and Uday Veer.
