Protests against authorities’ anti-people policies continue in J&K

Jammu: Protests against the anti-people policies of the authorities continue as the Jammu Kashmir Teachers Forum (JKTF) held protest demonstrations in Jammu and Srinagar.

According to Kashmir Media Service, led by JKTF Chairman Ganesh Khajuria, the protest in Jammu was held at Hari Singh Park and attended by hundreds of employees of different cadres of the School Education Department and other departments.

They raised slogans in favour of their demands and expressed the anguish against the unprecedented delay in release of GP Fund payments. “Not only GP Fund but Leave Salary and Gratuity dues of employees also remain unpaid. With each passing day, the settlement of pending GP fund payment cases are piling up in the Finance Department. Our union, on umpteen occasions submitted memoranda to the concerned quarters but nothing concrete has been done in this regard,” said Ganesh Khajuria.

He lamented that there are employees who have applied for the emergency fund to meet the treatment expenses of terminally ill patients while some employees have applied for the fund to organize marriage functions and there are still others who need the fund to finance the higher studies of their children. “The inordinate delay in the release of the payment has spoiled their plans. The employees are compelled to navigate a bureaucratic maze to access their own hard earned money,” he added.

In Srinagar, hundreds of employees assembled in Press Enclave, Srinagar, where they held a strong protest in favour of their demands.

Led by Teachers Forum President, Mohammad Shafi Rather, the protesting employees raised slogans in favour of their legitimate demands.

Shafi Rather said employees are being victimized and virtually made to beg for their hard earned dues. He also issued a stern ultimatum to the administration and sought an immediate end to the GP Fund woes of employees.