J&K Govt Faces Heat Over Daily Wagers Protests, Sets Up Panel for Regularisation

Under mounting pressure from daily wage workers and escalating public protests, the Jammu and Kashmir government has constituted a high-level committee to examine the regularization of over 60,000 daily wagers and casual laborers employed across various departments in the Union Territory.

The six-member panel, headed by the Chief Secretary, has been given a six-month deadline to submit its recommendations. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah made the announcement in the Legislative Assembly while responding to a query from BJP MLA Satish Sharma. He confirmed that a formal order for the constitution of the committee had already been issued, following an earlier assurance in the House.'

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“This is a long-pending humanitarian issue. Successive governments, including mine, have failed these daily wagers big time. We are now taking concrete steps to address it,” Abdullah said, adding that the issue is more humanitarian than financial in nature.

The government’s decision comes in the wake of massive protests earlier this week by daily wagers and ad hoc employees of the Jal Shakti Department in both Jammu and Srinagar. The protesters, angry over months of unpaid wages and the government’s inaction on regularization, took to the streets, demanding that the National Conference-led administration honor the commitments made in its election manifesto.

The demonstrations turned tense after police used force to disperse the crowd in several areas. Reacting to criticism, Abdullah distanced his administration from the police action, stating that law and order falls under the jurisdiction of the Raj Bhawan.

“This question should be posed to the Lieutenant Governor,” he said.

Adding to the government’s woes, the Supreme Court recently censured the administration for its failure to comply with a 2007 High Court order directing the regularization of daily wagers who had served between 14 to 19 years in the Rural Development Department.

The apex court termed the government’s inaction “shocking and prima facie contemptuous” and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the authorities, describing the case as a “textbook example of government authorities considering themselves above the law”.

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Official estimates suggest that nearly 60,000 daily wagers and casual laborers have been working in various departments for years without job security or benefits. While the previous government in December 2017 had formulated an SRO for their regularization, only 570 workers were regularized before the policy was scrapped under the J&K Reorganization Act in 2019. Since then, the future of these workers has remained uncertain.

With the formation of the high-level committee, the government faces growing pressure to deliver. Political analysts note that with elections on the horizon and public sentiment running high, the administration can ill afford further delays.

“The daily wagers, their families, and the entire populace of Jammu and Kashmir are watching,” said a senior political commentator. “This is not just about employment; it’s about restoring trust in governance.”

Chief Minister Abdullah, meanwhile, has reiterated his government’s broader commitment to employment generation. He said that over 15,000 vacancies have been filled in the past two years, with 13,466 non-gazetted posts referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB), and 9,351 selections completed. Similarly, 2,390 gazetted vacancies were referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC), with 2,175 selections made.

The government has also identified 10,757 multi-task service (MTS) vacancies currently under review by the Finance Department, with 6,000 more vacancies ready for referral to recruitment agencies.