Ghulam Muhammad Bhat, 55, of Bandipora has been serving in the Education department as contingent paid worker from the last 35 years. His salary is Rs 75 per month, an amount which doesn’t even fetch one kilogram of tea.Bhat is the father of five children and says he is the sole bread earner of his family.He has been appointed as sweeper in Government Girls High School Bandipora 35 years ago. “I have been working in the department from the past 35 years on a meagre amount of Rs 75 per month,” Bhat told KNS. Bhat is not the only worker who has served the department from past several years, there are around 25000 such employees working in the Education department.Besides working as sweeper in the department, the government has given them another responsibility to guard the schools following the incidents of torching of schools in the state in the last couple of months.Bhat said he along with his colleagues is still pinning hope on the government for regularization and hike in the monthly honorarium.
The 55-year-old Contingent Paid Worker told KNS that he has two daughters and both are unmarried. “I also do labour work. This salary can’t help in any way. Under such circumstances I cannot think about the marrying off my daughters. The government must not ignore our plight and should take some concrete steps,” he said.He told this while holding a protest along with hundreds of his other Contingent Paid Workers and Cook’s union colleagues here at Press Enclave. They staged a massive demonstration on Monday against the government for ‘failing to fulfill their demands’.President of the Union, Nazir Ahmad told KNS that they have been left to face hardships as the government failed to regularize them or to hike their monthly honorarium.“We are working in the Education department with sincerity but the government has forced us to take streets,” he said.Ahmad said that if the government fails to announce regularization and hike in their monthly honorarium in the upcoming assembly session, they will take extreme step against the government for which the state will be solely responsible. (KNS)