NC leader urges J&K admin to allow staff, protesting for relocation outside Kashmir, to ‘work from home’

Jammu, Dec 31 (PTI) Senior National Conference leader Ajay Kumar Sadhotra on Saturday asked the Jammu and Kashmir administration to allow its employees, protesting for their relocation outside the valley, to work from home till the situation becomes conducive for them to resume offline duties.

Migrant Kashmiri Pandits and Jammu-based reserved category employees have been camping in Jammu since May following the killing of their two colleagues Rahul Bhat and Rajni Balla by terrorists in the Valley.

“Covid pandemic is a living example of work from home culture and this mechanism can be adopted for the vulnerable sections of government employees in Kashmir,” Sadhotra said in a statement here.

He said the government has failed to instill a sense of confidence among the employees in the wake of unfortunate and barbaric killings in the Valley one after the another.

“The desperate employees are protesting for months in support of their legitimate demands, but nobody seems to be serious enough in addressing these.

“This is unethical and insensitive on the part of the government, which should have come up with a pragmatic road map to the malady after taking into confidence the stakeholders,” the former minister said.

He also sought the immediate release of the employees’ withheld salaries.

He demanded that pressure should not be exherted on them for resuming their duties, as ‘work from home” should be a guiding factor for the government to resolve the issue till situation becomes conducive in the Valley.