KP workers to get ‘secure postings’

Officials to consider grievances, demands

All Kashmiri Pandit government employees serving in the restive Kashmir Valley under the Prime Minister’s special job package will be posted at secure places by June 6.

Assuring this to what is often referred to as ‘migrant employees’, the Jammu and Kashmir authorities on Wednesday told them that their grievances and demands too would be considered “sympathetically”.

These employees began a protest following the killing by suspected militants of a colleague Rahul Bhat in the township of Chadoora on May 12 and have been insisting on being relocated to Jammu or any other part of the country.

“Just 1,250 Kashmiri Pandits employees have been housed in secure transit camps, while the remaining more than 4,000 live in rented accommodations and their security concerns amplified following the murder of Rahul Bhat,” Avinash

Bhat, the spokesman of the ‘migrant employees’ had said.

He had also said that since these employees were posted at scattered places, it was almost impossible for the government to provide safety and security to all of them; hence they were asking for being transferred to Jammu or posted in any other part of the country.

Under the job package announced in 2008 by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as many as 6,000 posts were created for Pandit migrants in the government’s effort to encourage the minority community to serve in the Kashmir Valley as a prelude to their eventual return and rehabilitation here.

Following the coldblooded murder of a female Hindu schoolteacher Rajini Bala by suspected militants in southern Kulgam district on Tuesday, the ‘migrant employees’ reinforced their demand of being transferred from Kashmir and gave the government an ultimatum of 24 hours and said after that they will begin their mass migration from the Valley.

36-year-old Bala, the latest victim of target killing, was a resident of the Samba district of the Jammu region but working in the Valley after her recruitment as a teacher from the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.

As the predominantly Muslim Valley has no SC population, the teachers’ posts reserved for SCs are filled by the candidates from the Jammu region. The agitating Kashmiri Pandit employees seized the gory incident to reinforce their demand and exert pressure on the government.

MIGRANT EMPLOYEES began a protest following the killing by suspected militants of a colleague Rahul Bhat in the township of Chadoora on May 12 and have been insisting on being relocated to Jammu or any other part of the country.