Kounsar Bashir
Fahmida Akhtar awaits her husband who is bed-ridden since Sunday after he fell off an electric pole amid snow in Bogund village in the south Kashmir’s Kulgam district.
Shabir Ahmed Dar, a casual labor with Kashmir’s Power Development Department (JKPDD) fell off the pole in Bogund area of South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. “He had repaired several faulty lines while restoring electricity amid heavy snowfall in the area. After he repaired several lines, he fell down on the ground from an electric pole. He was severely injured and is battling for his life since,” Fahmida said.
He is among the thousands of Kashmiris engaged by the PDD for years together without regularising their services. They work on meagre salaries of ₹3000-₹7000. Several labours, The Kashmiriyat spoke to, said that their salaries are at times delayed for years together.
A person employed as a casual labourer is entitled to receive a meager sum of ₹ 225 as their daily wage. “These meager wages are paid to us after months in installments,” the workers allege. PDD workers have been demanding the implementation of SRO 381 (part of Recruitment Rules) which promises the regularisation of those daily wagers who have completed seven years in the department.
Around 6000 casual labourers work for the Power Development Department in Kashmir – as per figures released by their union, 3862 casual laborers, 1320 daily wagers work in Jammu alone. Around one lakh casual labourers – daily wagers, need-based workers and others – have been engaged in different departments in Jammu Kashmir including the PDD.
As Shabir battles for his life, a grimness has surrounded his colleagues. Many before Farooq have died in the line of duty while ensuring electricity reaches us all. The Power Development Department (PDD) of Jammu Kashmir tops the list of government departments where maximum deaths have occurred.
Records suggest that 175 people have died in the line duty in PDD. At least 250 others are living with crippling handicaps.
Official turns Messiah
Shabir, who hails from an economically weaker family, is battling for his life under intensive medical care. Fahmida says the doctors are visiting him constantly. “We have very less money left, but it is people in our neighbourhood, who have been arranging for him,” she said.
She also said that an official of the Power Development Department went ‘out of the way’ and wrote to the officials on an official letterhead to donate voluntarily for the family and pray for his well-being. The Kashmiriyat accessed the appeal written on an official letterhead which asked employees willing to contribute to Farooq’s family in their bank account so that they do not suffer for the lack of money.
“All of you might be aware of the doleful episode wherein one worker namely Mr. Shabir Ahmad Dar got critically injured and is reportedly under treatment at SKIMS Srinagar. Since the labourer belongs to the low paid section of the corporation, besides there is almost no apparent provision for meeting medical expenses to be involved for his treatment, as such, heartfelt appeal is being made to come forward for mass financial support to the victim on a voluntary basis” the letter read.
The official asked officers to raise maximum funds for the injured casual labor as there was no provision for meeting medical expenses, adding, “the donors must directly transfer funds directly to the injured casual laborer’s personal account.”
A media report criticized the official calling the episode as ‘Bizarre’- however, senior officials of the department The Kashmiriyat said that there was nothing wrong in it and the story seems to be a result of personal vendetta rather than honest reporting. The officials said that the letter has been written with good intent.
Fahmida expressing her thankfulness to the official said that they were drained off of all the money while treating Shabir. She said that there was no help from the administration, neither did anybody visit him while he is battling for his life. “We did not have any money left. The hospital expenses are too much for the family to bear and the official has come as a Messiah for us. I really thank him for going out of the way and helping the family in dire need of the same,” Fahmida said.
“He has been working as a casual labourer for the department for the past 25 years and it was only a year ago that he was assigned a sum of 6700 a month, which can never been enough to run a family of three members,” Fahmida said, demanding the regulraising of her husband’s services.
The Kashmiriyat spoke to the chief Engineer Kashmir Power Development Corporation Limited (KPDCL) Aejaz Ahmed Dar who said that the department will try to ensure that all the expenses of the injured linemen of the department are borne by the department. “We are the bound to bear medical expenses of injured lineman Shabir Ahmed Dar,” he said.
He said that the department is working to provide ‘golden health cards’ to its all employees including linemen.
Responding to the increasing incidents of employees injured in the line of the duty, Aejaz Ahmed Dar said that they will implement a set Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) and also procure latest equipment to minimize accidents and injuries to its staff.
A Bleak Future, A Long pending Demand
Over 20,000 employees and engineers of the Power Development Department (PDD) last month went on an indefinite strike across Jammu Kashmir opposing the privatisation of the department.
The union leaders are apprehensive of the move as they had in past witnessed the fate of the joint venture company like CVPPPL that was floated on the same concept of harnessing the hydro-potential, and NHPC, JKSPDC, and PDD were equivalent shareholders. “The privatization would not be acceptable to the employees in the PDD,” the employees said. And, then after three days of head-on collision with the administration, the employees called off their strike.
Of late the Department has been in headlines either on account of the directives from the office of the Lieutenant Governor or the ever-increasing accidents of its employees while performing their duties.
The regularization in PDD is pending since 2001
In order to address this issue, the State Administrative Council directed that the proposal for regular promotions in the Department of Power Development be processed on a fast track basis, with the full procedure to be finished in two months.
As a result, a proposal of 200 retired engineers was given to the establishing committee in the first instance but was rejected by the Chief Secretary-led committee at the highest level, demotivating the entire group of engineers due to the lack of new vigilance clearance.
Furthermore, the daily wagers from 1998 are still pending regularisation, despite the fact that they met all of the DPC criteria set down in the Power Development Department’s SRO-381 OF 1981.
Because the majority of the linemen in the department are daily wagers who put their lives on the line and are paid Rs. 6750 per month for services rendered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, Regularization orders are not being issued despite the availability of openings at all levels. Will the daily wagers remain motivated to perform his duties 24×7 at a meager amount of 6750 per month when we expect him to be a watchdog of the illegal hooking and prevent the thefts of electricity?
The staff appointed in 1998 has got not even a single promotion even after 23 years of service and most of them are meter readers. When will Government take steps to give them justice?