The abolition of SRO 202 ending discrimination to post 2015 appointees in Jammu & Kashmir is a surprise only to those mainstream leaders and trade unionists who welcome it without looking at the timing and situation the Jammu & Kashmir Government has choosen to concede the long awaited demand of the post 2015 appointees and the jobless youth. Interestingly the government has announced the decision only after putting into place a hostile job policy attracting criticism and condemnation from people of all shades and opinions irrespective of their regional and religious affiliations. Unfortunately all the decisions of Jammu & Kashmir taken with the consent of the central government after the abrogation of article 370 and downgrading of the erstwhile state to a union territory in August last year are encouraging for the outsiders now to be called domiciles and absolutely discouraging for the bonafide residents of Jammu & Kashmir to be equally treated as domiciles from here onwards. It took almost two years for the central government to scrap the controversial 202 approved and implemented by the erstwhile Mehbooba Mufti led coalition government of which BJP commanding and controlling the incumbent central government was a major ally.
Administrative wisdom demands that before embarking upon its recently announced plan of recruiting Class IV employees in thousands, government takes a call on the long awaited regularization of a strong workforce of 60,000 temporary workers engaged in different departments for more than a decade now to make people believe that SRO 202 has been scrapped in the larger interests of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, not the non locals desperate to claim jobs as domiciles from now onwards.
A general impression brewing among the people of Jammu & Kasmir is that a party presently in power at the centre has scrapped SRO 202, a decision of which it was a part till July 2018 and only timing and situation has forced it to so just for the purposes of it’s own political convenience. The decision is in no way a concession to the people of Jammu & Kashmir but the part of a plan implemented in phases for the purposes of the implementation of a hostile political agenda of the political party in power at the centre. Had the government been serious about the job woes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, it would have simultaneously taken a similar decision on regularization of dailywagers, casual labourers, HDF workers and the likes keeping in view the fact the erstwhile Mehbooba Mufti led coalition of which the political presently in power at the centre had taken a decision over the regularization of 60,000 strong workforce engaged on temporary basic for about last one decade in different departments. Administrative wisdom demands that before embarking upon its recently announced plan of recruiting Class IV employees in thousands, government takes a call on the long awaited regularization of a strong workforce of 60,000 temporary workers engaged in different departments for more than a decade now to make people believe that SRO 202 has been scrapped in the larger interests of the people of Jammu & Kashmir, not the non locals desperate to claim jobs as domiciles from now onwards.