Onlykashmir.in News Desk
Awami Itihaad Party Chief Spokesperson Inam Un Nabi, on a two-day visit to Jammu, demanded that the Jammu and Kashmir government make a clear, time-bound commitment in the ongoing Legislative Assembly session on the regularisation of casual labourers, daily-rated workers and other temporary employees, arguing that repeated assurances without firm dates amounted to little more than rhetoric. Citing figures placed before the Assembly, Inam said 1,00,501 casual and other daily-rated workers have had their particulars registered through Aadhaar-based biometric identification and skill profiling, a category that includes 69,696 casual labourers, 8,534 seasonal labourers and 8,836 daily-rated or work-charged employees, besides workers in other classifications.
The AIP leader questioned why no regularisation had taken place under SRO-520 during either 2024-25 or 2025-26, noting that the government had cited pending judicial review of the policy as the reason for the delay. He said workers who had already given years of service to government departments could not be expected to accept another round of assurances that the matter remained under examination. “After so many years, these workers do not need another assurance that the matter is under examination. They need a clear timeline. The Government must tell the Assembly exactly when the regularisation process will begin, by when each phase will be completed and by what date the entire process will be completed,” Inam said.
He pointed out that the Government Order constituting a committee to examine the matter, issued on March 19, 2025, had given the panel six months to submit its findings, a deadline that has since lapsed. Inam argued that if the committee had been set up to chart a comprehensive way forward, the government now owed the Assembly a clear account of its status and the next steps to be taken, adding that administrative consultations could not be allowed to substitute for an actual policy decision.
Inam said the National Conference-led government needed to place a specific start date, phase-wise deadlines and a final completion date on the Assembly record, along with the broad eligibility criteria and implementation framework for the regularisation process. “A commitment without dates is only an assurance. The Government must give these workers a definite starting date and a definite completion date. Anything short of that is merely rhetoric,” he said, adding that the affected workers, whose particulars have already been identified and documented, were now simply waiting for a decision and a timeline from the government.
