From: Shaukat Ahmad Khan
The honorable Shiri Girish Chandra Murmu Ji
Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir UT
Raj Bhavan Jammu
Sir,
I Shaukat Ahmad Khan, the President of AJKRKTF would like to put some issues and concerns for your kind attention and intervention through this open letter. After assuming charge as Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir here, you must have realized how slowly the UT of Jammu & Kashmir is accelerating in terms of development, output, infrastructure and management. Before I place my views for your kind attention, I would like to apprise you of some paramount figures.
In Jammu and Kashmir the labour force is about 1% of India’s labour force and the labour force participation rate is similar to that of the rest of India, but the unemployment rate is twice as high as it is in India. In Aug,2019 ,the labour force participation rate rose a bit to 43 % and the unemployment rate rose sharply to 22%. Recently , under your leadership the Directorate of Employment asked the unemployed youth having PG, M.Phil, or PhD degree to register themselves. In just 15 days, over 1.5 lakh highly qualified youth registered themselves as unemployed.
In financial year 2018 J&K’s per capita income remained Rs 65,615 which was well below the national average of around Rs 98,000. Also, in terms of purchasing power parity the UT of J&Kk remained below from the UTs of Goa, Delhi, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar islands. From this you can easily perceive and measure the rate of progress, prosperity, mental stability and advancement of the youth in Jammu and Kashmir. Since, I am a resident of the UT of J&K; it is my obligation to inform you about the ill and incompetent condition of my fellow residents. Besides a resident I am also the servant of AJKRKTF, so it is my duty to bring to your notice their concerns and problems. Before I talk to you about these young and enthusiastic individuals, I would like to unveil some factual information.
The funeral of our economy, political structure, stability and growth has already appeared. Now we are also suffocating in the field of sports. While athletes and players from every state in India are raising flags today, the youth of J&K are loosing their essence. You might be knowing that the conditions of physical education preceptors in Jammu & Kashmir are very poor and fade.
In the year of 2017 the State Government had recruited 3000 youth in department of physical education through youth service and sports department under the policy Rehber e khel. These 3000 youth were employed to promote sports in the state. Without an iota of doubt, these young and energetic youth are working laboriously for the purpose for which they were chosen and engaged. But now after engaging them it seems that the administration does not bother to take care of their interests. Among the three thousand preceptors 40% have completed their M Phil and PhD programs in the subject and rest posses PG degrees. All these stupendous and dedicated youth are working on daily wages which is not more than 3000 rupees. I just want to say that Is our worth only 3000 pennies. So, to make gentle reminder of our governance I decided to write you a letter, so that you can get to the bottom of the problems as we have to perform some social responsibilities and are carrying the huge burden of domestic accountabilities too.
Now at last I request your gracious on behalf of the entire forum to take following demands into your consideration for appropriate action. We peacefully in a democratic way are placing before your gracious self following demands for appropriate action.
1:- we demand allowance of off pay.
2:- we call for hike in our salaries.
3:- we demand to reduce the time span for regularization from seven to five or below five years.
4:- We also demand physical education be introduced as a subject in all schools of J&K , so that
the youth of Jammu & Kashmir can excel in field of sports.
5:- We call for implementation of second phase of Rehber e khel policy in short time.
Please keep these demands under your kind consideration so that UT of J&K can also
compete in a row with the youth of the other parts of the country.
Thank you,
Yours Faithfully
Shaukat Ahmad Khan
(The author has pursued his doctorate in Physical education and is presently the president of AJKRKTF)