JAMMU, MARCH 11: ANB:Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today announced to constitute a committee under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo to devise a roadmap for the regularization of daily-rated wagers.
Replying to the discussion on Budget 2025, the Chief Minister said, “Through this House, I am announcing the formation of a committee under the Chief Secretary, with the Additional Chief Secretary to the CM, Commissioner Secretary GAD, Planning Secretary, and Law Secretary. Within six months, we will finalize a framework, determine the exact number of daily wagers, and legally and financially assess how they can be regularized. Then, the policy will be discussed here in the next budget.”
Speaking about the plight of daily wagers, the Chief Minister emphasized that this is not merely a financial issue but a humanitarian and social concern. Referring to the use of force against protesting daily wagers in Srinagar and Jammu, he remarked, “What happened to them yesterday, I do not want to repeat. But I must ask—why did the situation reach this stage?”
He recalled that during his previous tenure as Chief Minister, his government had initiated a framework for regularizing daily wagers. However, he noted that the 2014 elections and the devastating floods had disrupted these plans. Taking a dig at the opposition, he questioned their inaction, stating, “What did you (the opposition) do? I reviewed past budget speeches from your tenure and found no mention of daily wagers except in the fourth budget speech, where you vaguely spoke about ‘sustainable livelihood’.” He further pointed out that even after the issuance of SRO-520, only 577 daily wagers were regularized.
Challenges in Regularization
The Chief Minister highlighted that, over the past decade, opposition which were in power then failed to address the issue, despite having both state and central authority. He accused them of prioritizing the 7th Pay Commission over the regularization of daily wagers, making the situation more complicated.
“Then came the J&K Reorganization Act, which effectively shut the door on their regularization. Now, we must reopen this issue. But in these years, their numbers have changed, making it difficult to determine an accurate count,” he said. The government must start from the scratch to resolve their concerns, he said. ANB
