Kounsar Bashir/ Faizan Mir
A young postgraduate student ended his life due to a financial crunch in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. A video went viral on social media, in which this student accused the government of withholding his father’s salary, and that this forced him to commit suicide.
The boy, identified as Shoaib Bashir son of Bashir Ahmad Malik from Avil Noorabad Kulgam, recorded a video before committing suicide and expressing his reasons for taking such drastic action. He said that life had become miserable because his father had not been paid for two and a half years. “I am sacrificing my life, not only for my father but for all the other teachers/employees who hope that their issues will be resolved,” Shoaib said in the 2-minute video.
Bashir Ahmad Malik, the deceased’s father, a teacher by profession whose salary along with many other teachers was stopped after August 2019 after the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission in the region. “Under 7th Pay Commission I also got the transact order but my salary was not released,” Bashir told The Kashmiriyat.
'We were Militants in the 1990s, we are being victimized for that since 2019."
Angry with the admin, the son of a Government teacher from Kulgam #Kashmir committed suicide after being unable to pay fees. He released a video shortly before committing suicide.
Report Suhail Dar pic.twitter.com/N3I1JIbgIH
— The Kashmiriyat (@TheKashmiriyat) May 30, 2021
The 7th Pay Commission establishes a new pay matrix and pay scale that ensures that the pensioners and Government employees get a 2.57% hike on their existing income and that a central government employee enjoys a salary that is double than the previous one.
As per the seventh pay commission, a central government employee’s salary is divided in three parts – basic salary, allowances and deductibles. Net CTC is a central government employee’s summation of basic salary multiplied by 7th CPC ( Central Pay Commission) fitment factors plus all allowances.
However, net salary has a difference of net CTC and is deductible like PF contribution and gratuity, etc. Everything was fine till 2019 but after that, things changed, Bashir said. “We have been in the education department for 18 years but since 2019 our salary has been stopped,” said another teacher from the Shopian district.
One of the teachers said that after the abrogation decision of August 2019, they started doing background checks of various Government employees. “We are unfortunate teachers and released militants. We were released by the government and verified by CID, DC, DLC,” he added. He said that he continued to pursue his studies further after which he was appointed as a teacher on a merit basis under the ‘Rehbar-e-Taleem’ scheme of the government. “Unfortunately we are being harassed decades after we left militancy.”
Meanwhile, Bashir Ahmad Malik, father of the deceased blamed the former Education Director, Mohammad Younis Malik for halting their salaries for the past two and half years. “Our order was kept in abeyance saying it is adverse,” Bashir said.
“I was endorsed along with other teachers but then former Director of education issued an order halting the case of 70 teachers for no apparent reason. We have been in a financial crunch for the past three years and couldn’t even afford clothes on EID for my children in these years,” he said. “My son was a Masters’s student and had asked his mother to fee for his studies, which she couldn’t give. If only I or my elder brother were aware of his need, we would have begged or sold our land and stopped him from taking such action,” Bashir told The Kashmiriyat.
CEO Kulgam, Mohammad Ashraf Rather, while talking to The Kashmiriyat said that they were SSA ( Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) teachers and that they were called Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers who had to go through teacher Grade 2(TG2) AND (TG3). “We sent their files to Directorate Education Kashmir, they were approved and the office further issued them. I was not there at the time. The Directorate Education Kashmir wrote a letter that their first report is adverse and if they have issued any order then kept in abeyance,” he said
“They were 12 candidates whose orders were kept in abeyance. However, the transaction order was not passed and pay was also not released from the state plan. Directorate Education Kashmir would know the work/case better as all the work is done by them.” he added.
In his video, Shoaib asked his family to be patient as they have been till now and that Allah is with them.
“We held guilty Mohammad Younis Malik, the former director for this murder,” Bashir alleges, also adding, “We are appealing to Honorable LG Manoj Sinha to take action against him and to provide justice to the deprived family of the deceased.”
The Jammu Kashmir National Conference Party Vice President Omar Abdullah on Monday expressed shock and grief over the suicide of 24 year old youth of Avil, Noorabad Kulgam calling the incident a visible manifestation of the misplaced policies of the incumbent administration. “The unfortunate incident ditches the claims of the government on the so-called dividends that August 05 measures were said would bring. People are suffering,” he said.
In a statement issued here, CPI (M) General Secretary Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami said: “the youth, who was a son of a government school teacher, was reportedly forced to take an extreme step after his father was denied salary for the past two years. Even if reports of his father being a former militant are true, it should have been verified before he entered into service.”