Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Scores of Power Development Department daily-wage workers marched toward the Civil Secretariat in Srinagar on Thursday, demanding immediate regularisation of their services and resolution of long-pending grievances. The protest was organised under the banner of the Jammu & Kashmir Power Development Department Daily-Wage, Casual and Need-Based Workers Union, bringing renewed public attention to a demand that has simmered within the department’s contractual workforce for years.
The protesting workers assembled in large numbers before setting off toward the Civil Secretariat, raising slogans against the administration and alleging continued apathy toward their long-standing issues. Carrying banners spelling out their core demands, many workers pointed to decades of service under hazardous conditions, work they say has been essential to maintaining uninterrupted power supply across Jammu and Kashmir despite the absence of permanent job security.
Union representatives said the regularisation of daily-wage, casual and need-based staff has remained unresolved for years, despite repeated assurances and years of continuous service by the workers involved. They urged the government to intervene without further delay and frame a concrete, time-bound policy that would finally bring these workers into regular service, rather than leaving their status in prolonged limbo.
Beyond the core demand for regularisation, the protesters also called for the timely release of pending wages, several of which they say have been delayed for extended periods, along with adequate compensation for colleagues who have suffered injuries or lost their lives while carrying out hazardous line-maintenance duties. Power-line work, particularly during storms and periods of heavy snowfall, has long been recognised as among the more dangerous categories of departmental labour in Jammu and Kashmir.
The union appealed directly to the administration to initiate a time-bound resolution process, framing the march as a last resort after years of what workers describe as inaction on their demands. Protests of this nature have periodically recurred within J&K’s daily-wage workforce, with unions across multiple departments pressing similar regularisation demands amid a broader debate over contractual labour practices in government service.
As the workers reached the vicinity of the Civil Secretariat, officials had yet to issue a formal response to the union’s demands, leaving the outcome of Thursday’s protest, and the broader regularisation question, unresolved for now.
