Suhail Dar
Angry drivers, taken for a toss for several months on Wednesday staged a protest inside the office premises of the Assistant Regional Transport office (ARTO) Anantnag to demand their pending wages for the District Development Council Elections-2020 election duties.
The South Kashmir Transporters Association spokesman, Shabir Ahmed speaking to The Kashmiriyat said that the district administration approached them last year ahead of the elections and asked them for the assistance in providing vehicles for moving election equipment and officials from one place to the other during the elections.
“We provided them nearly 450 vehicles, the drivers paid for the petrol themselves. The officials back then promised that the payments would be released within a month,” Shabir said, adding, “It has been a year, but the officials are not fulfilling the promises made to the transporters association.”
The drivers had a hard time during the election duty. They were not given any accommodation, but made to sleep in the college ground and also not provided any food. “We slept in our vehicles in the November chill,” a protesting driver said.
“We have our children to take care of. I have four daughters, a wife. After they threatened to lock down our stand in Anantnag’s Janglat Mandi in November last year, we were forced to go on election duty. I went for the election duty risking my life, lived there under apathetic and inhumane conditions slept outside polling booths. The Administration must pay our pending wages,” he said.
Shabir Ahmed said that after months of restrictions, following abrogation and then the Covid-19 lockdown, the public transport was allowed to ply on the road only with 50 percent of passenger capacity. However, shortly after the vehicles in South Kashmir, Shabir says, were taken for election duties for the DDC elections.
“The administration owes 4 crore, 28 Lakh rupees to the transporters in South Kashmir, according to official sources, who say that the payments are being released in phases. They said, out of the four crores and 28 lakh rupees, the administration has released 2 crores and 28 Lakhs out of which over 1 crore fifty Lakh has been given to the concerned department to be paid to the drivers.
Shabir Ahmed said, the drivers have not received anything as of yet. He said that officials have been delaying their payments since a long. “We have to pay for the loans, the interests, the banks listen to no excuses,” Shabir said.
The Assistant Regional Transport office (ARTO) upon being contacted by The Kashmiriyat said that the payments of the drivers would be released soon. Mohammed Zubair, the ARTO Anantnag said that he has recently joined the district. “I know these drivers are suffering, we are processing their files, it might take a little while, but i will ensure that the payments will be released soon,” he said.
He alleged that the drivers abused him, a claim refused by the drivers who said that the ARTO abused them.
The DDC polls were the first electoral exercise since the nullification of Article 370 on August 5 last year. Voting was held in 280 seats, 14 in each of the 20 districts of the Union Territory.
The first DDC elections in the history of Jammu Kashmir were held from 28 November 2020 in eight phases across the two-hundred and eighty DDC constituencies.
People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) won 110 seats while BJP won 75 seats.