“Pandit employees won’t be forced to join their duties in Valley”

Asserting that the conditions were not conducive for return of Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees to the Valley to join their duties there, BJP lawmaker Surinder Ambardar on Monday said they would not be forced for the same till the normalcy returns in the restive Kashmir region.

The ongoing protest by the KP employees, who have refused to join their duty in the Valley following alleged attacks by mobs on their transit camps there, completed 100 days on Monday.

“The conditions are not conducive in the Valley for KP employees, who had to flee to Jammu due to lack of security after the unrest began in Kashmir in early July, to join their duties,” Mr Ambardar, who is BJP MLC, told reporters here at a sports competition meet being organised by BJP Kashmir unit for displaced Kashmiri pandits in memory of Prem Nath Dogra in various KP displaced camps and schools.

He said he has taken up the matter with Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh who has “assured” that “no one will be forced to join their duties till normalcy returns in the Valley”.

Mr Ambardar said it was “unfortunate” that the students in Kashmir have not attended their schools for last three months due to the ongoing protest.

“How can KP employees go and join services in Kashmir when some miscreants are burning down schools there day in and day out. They want to destroy the education edifice of the Valley, and in such circumstances when even school buildings are not spared, I don’t think these can be considered as conducive conditions for KP employees to go back to join their duties,” the MLC said.

Earlier in the day, the employees had alleged that the government, which is run in a coalition between BJP and PDP, had withheld their salaries after they began their protest.

“Nobody is bothered”

“Our protest has completed 100 days today but so far nobody from the government has bothered to listen to our grievances. Our salaries have been withheld since July,”, president, All Migrant Employees Association Kashmir, Ruban Saproo said.

Over 1,500 employees from the KP community, employed under the Prime Minister’s rehabilitation package, had moved to Jammu after their transit camps in Kashmir were allegedly attacked by stone-pelting mobs in the wake of the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani on July 8.

Kashmir Valley, since then, has witnessed violent protests and in clashes between protestors and security forces, 85 people, including two cops, have been killed and several thousand others injured. - PTI