The employees of J&K Employees Provident Fund Organisation (JKEPFO) Kashmir division are on indefinite strike in support of their pending demands.
While raising slogans against the administration, the protesting employees have stated that they have approached every quarter of the administration during the past 2 ½ years for settlement of these genuine demands which include the issuance of HR notification but till date apart from promises & assurances nothing has been done by the administration which has resulted that the employees/ pensioners are in distress with different apprehensions regarding future prospects of their services, a statement issued to the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) reads.
Pertinently, after the abrogation of Article 370, the Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 has been made applicable to the erstwhile state of J&K after repealing the J&K Employees Provident Fund & Miscellaneous Provisions Act 1961 as per J&K Reorganization Act of 2019, and the government had assured that the service benefits shall be taken care of and no employee shall suffer as regard to the service benefits under Central Act made applicable to the UTs of J&K and Ladakh but till date, nothing has been done which has resulted that the employees of JKEPFO have are left with no option but to go on indefinite strike for settlement of their demands.
The protesting employees have expressed their concern over the delay tactics being adopted by the authorities in the issuance of HR Notification as per CAC recommendations (MHA), settlement of SRO cases, conducting DPC, regularization of Consolidated Orderly namely Sajad Ahmad Mir as per High Court Order and obtaining budgetary support for the financial year 2022-23 as assured and promised by Central EPFO as per CAC recommendations as the revenue collection of JKEPFO w.e.f November 2019 is directly going into a central pool and due to non-availability of budget the employees/pensioners of JKEPFO will be left with non-payment of salaries, pensions and other days to day expenses during the current financial year.
The employees have appealed the authorities to settle all these genuine demands immediately without any further delay so that the employees/pensioners of JKEPFO can have a sigh of relief—(KNO)