Govts have become insensitive towards our woes: Kashmiri Pandit employees

Jammu: Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees in the Valley on Tuesday accused the Centre and the state government of being "insensitive" to their problems.

The ongoing protest of hundreds of KP employees, who have refused to return to work in the Valley after alleged stonepelting at their transit camps, today entered the 27th day.

"The state and the central governments have become insensitive towards our problems. A high-level committee, which can take decision on behalf of the government, should be formed to hold talks with us," said Promod Kumar, one of the protesters.

Raising slogans against the Jammu and Kashmir government for being "insensitive" towards their woes, the protesters claimed that not a single official or representative of the government had paid them a visit to listen to their grievances.

"Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti urges the Prime Minister to hold talks with separatists who are out to disintegrate the country, but she is quiet on the issues of those who keep the tricolour aloft in Kashmir," chairman, All Party Migrant Coordination Committee (APMCC) Vinod Pandit, who has extended his support to the agitators, said.

He said the KP employees, employed in the Valley under the Prime Minister's rehabilitation package, were forced to leave "once again" after their transit camps were attacked by stonepelting mobs.

"They did not come here to stage a protest willingly. They were forced to leave their jobs in Kashmir after their camps were attacked by stonepelters, a fact acknowledged by the CID chief of Kashmir," claimed Pandit.

The protesting KP employees have also accused the BJP, the coalition partner of the PDP in the Jammu and Kashmir government, of "rubbing salt" on their miseries as the four-member panel formed by the party to hold talks with them had "not done anything".

Inclement weather conditions here have not been able to deter the protesters as they have pitched tents outside the office of the Relief Commissioner.

The protesters, under the banner of All Migrant Employees' Association, Kashmir, are demanding placement in Jammu till a comprehensive plan for their return and rehabilitation is worked out.

"We have given our blood to the soil of Kashmir and do not want to die there. The government should review the employment packag and accommodate us here in Jammu as it is not possible for us to return to Kashmir under the current circumstances," said Manoj Kaul, one of the protesters.