JAMMU: Standing up yet again for Jammu cause, senior Congress leader Sham Lal Sharma, who has resigned from the Council of Ministers as Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, on Sunday accused Finance Minister of ‘deliberate delay’ in withholding recommendations of the Cabinet Sub Committee for regularising daily rated workers as most of the beneficiaries belonged to Jammu region and took on a senior minister for blackmail to enlist his 500 supporters by mutilating norms.
In a sensational disclosure at a crowded press conference here this afternoon, Sharma named Minister for Higher Education Mohammed Akbar Lone for ‘blackmailing’ him by seeking inclusion of his 500 workers with back date to enable their regularisation
“A senior NC leader and Cabinet minister Mohammed Akbar Lone blackmailed me as he wanted me to keep rules aside and adjust his men in the list of daily wage workers that we had decided to regularise in the department.
“Lone said that only after I include the names of his men he will sign the order to regularise the daily wage workers of my department who had served for more than ten years,” Sharma told reporters.
Sharma also said that the reason for his resignation was the “discrimination” with the Jammu-based ‘daily wage’ workers of the PHE department.
“Last year, when I took the charge of the PHE department I found that since 1994 around 11,984 daily wage workers were regularised in the department and out of which 11,129 were from Kashmir division and only 855 from Jammu division,” Sharma claimed.Sharma said that during a Cabinet meeting held on June 30, it was decided that the services of 23,711, daily-wage workers who had completed ten years of service with the department would be regularised.
“I found that there were 23,711 workers engaged with the department after Jan 30, 1994. So during the Cabinet meeting we decided to regularise their services, while around 6,000 were from Kashmir division more than 16,000 were from Jammu division, which created problem for the NC leaders,” Sharma said.
He said that even though the Cabinet Sub Committee approved the order, Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather did not sign it. Headed by Rather, the CSC includes Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Minister for Medical Education, Minister for Urban Development and Urban Local Bodies, Minister for Planning and Development, Minister for Law & Parliamentary Affairs, besides Sham Lal Sharma as Minister for Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control as its members.
“The Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather during the meeting had told me that he would attach a covering letter and then send the order to the General Administration Department, but when I came to know that it was not done, I raised objections and then another cabinet colleague who is a senior NC leader approached me as he wanted me to adjust his people by breaking the rules by putting a back date on their joining. “I refused it as this was sheer blackmailing and an act of discrimination with Jammu,” Sharma said.
Sharma said, “This was blackmail on their part, so I decided to resign from the cabinet and as the chief minister was out of station, I submitted my resignation to my party chief in the state who will forward it to the chief minister on his return,” he said.
To a question on his earlier observations on a Hindu becoming Chief Minister, Sharma said there is no constitutional bar about it.
“It is up to the voters of the State, if they want a Hindu Chief Minister they can elect one,” he said.
To repeated questions on delaying the regularisation and other issues pertaining to the Jammu region, Sham regretted that there had been no common minimum programme agreed upon by the coalition partners. He vowed to take up the cause of Jammu in all the circumstances, saying he was accountable to them as their representative. He reiterated his stand saying he was, is and will be a foot soldier of Congress.
Earlier, Sharma was given a rousing reception at Jammu Airport on his arrival from the summer capital after stepping down as Minister. Thousands of supporters including Congress workers, intellectuals, PHE daily wagers, INTUC leaders thronged at Jammu Airport to express complete solidarity with the leader. They profusely garlanded Sharma and showered flower petals on him,
Sharma also addressed a gathering at Purkho and expressed his gratitude to the people for their whole hearted support. He unfolded the circumstances which led to his resignation from the Council of Minister and said that the issue of regularization of over 60,000 workers engaged in various departments after 1994 was hanging in air and all successive governments did not show seriousness for addressing the same.
He said he got the lists prepared and verified each such worker engaged in PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control Department and taken up the issue logically in Cabinet Sub-Committee and State Cabinet from time to time for their regularization. The issue was approved by the Cabinet Sub Committee headed by Finance Minister but could not get the Cabinet nod due to deliberate and delay tactics by some of the senior Ministers of National Conference.
He said some NC Ministers tried to regionalize the issue as the workers in the list from Jammu are on higher side.
He said the schemes and areas in Jammu region are more than in quantity and volume and it cannot be compared on such lines. Moreover, in Kashmir region 11,129 daily wagers/need based works were regularized prior to 1994, whereas in Jammu division only 855 people were regularized. He said he confronted the claims of NC Ministers and justified the higher number of Jammu region, but he failed in getting the issue through despite his best efforts.
Describing the issue of Daily Wagers/Temporary workers as human issue, Sham said that after putting more than 20 years the innocent workers have not got their dues and even they are not regularly paid their wages which is the clear violation of human rights. (With inputs from agencies)
