Dear Editor,,
As per the Islamic mythology, ‘Every wager must be paid his wages before his sweat dries’. According to the communism every person should be assigned work according to his capacity and wages be paid according to his basic needs.
Exploiting the poverty and compelling a poor person to work in hazardous situation without wages is called bonded labor which is a blatant violation of the international human rights and that of the fundamental rights enshrined in the Indian Constitution. Owing to the financial crunch in the state, almost every department is employing its staff either on contractual basis or as the daily wagers where the employees and the workers are paid according to the contract and at the daily rate as fixed by the government from time to time. Hats off to the Power Development Department (PDD) which has invented one more working class like Need Based Workers. These poor creatures neither fall under the category of the contractual nor under the daily wagers. The daily wagers at least get their earnings though after a gap of months together but the poor need based workers are neither paid nor they are put on any record.
They work whole heartedly in the department with the hope that they will be promoted in the category of daily wagers one day as a result many of such need based workers have met their death leaving the survivals to the pity of god.
The need based workers are boon for the permanent employees of the PDD because owing to the shortage of staff in the PDD department these untrained need based workers discharge the duties of linemen and the junior engineers and are deployed in the most danger prone works pertaining to the maintenance of high tension transmission lines, guard and look after hundreds of transformers.
These need based workers work in the remotest corners of the state without proper equipment and protective gears with the result they fall prey to accident. They work honestly throughout day and night in order to keep the remote and isolated hamlets illuminated. It is requested that they must be treated like employees and there must be some avenues for their promotions like other departments.
A proper record of such workers must be maintained and sent to the higher offices for further promotions and shall be paid regularly so that they can provide two times meals to their families. All the need based workers be promoted as the daily wagers and the roadmap must be prepared for their further promotions. In the case of accidental death of the need based worker
during the working hours they should get the benefit of Insurance and sufficient amount be granted for their families so that they can make their both ends meet. Let these poor creatures enjoy the fruit of the rights guaranteed for them in the constitution.
Shiv Kumar Padha
Basohli
