Drug threat

Drug  menace is among  the top burning  problem confronted by humanity in the present  era of progress and technology . This vice does only leads to social, medical and psychological problems, but also have an adverse effect on the world economy. Despite concerted efforts by the world  community to prevent misuse of drugs and its illegal trafficking, it continues to flourish in several parts of the globe.

Worryingly enough, Production of drugs and its trade has so far shown no signs of decline. Instead, the trade in illegal drugs has now become a multi-billion dollar global business. According to the UN estimates, more than 50 million people across the globe are regular users of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs like Ecstasy. The UN report claims that millions of others are directly or indirectly involved in its production, trafficking or sale.

As a matter of great pain and shame  Thousands of  people especially youngsters n Kashmir are suffering from drug addiction. NGOs working on the subject and experts fear that if government authorities do not address the problem soon, it may assume disastrous proportions.

It is a known fact  Depression, drug addiction and suicide are all interconnected in Kashmir. The easy availability of prescription drugs for depression is a quick route to addiction, and also a potential method of overdosing. It’s not surprising, then, that alongside the drug addiction rate; the suicide rate in Kashmir is climbing.

The recent vision and tough steps  shown by the Government to curb  this menace is well come step but more needs to be done.

All  the worrying realities call for all the concerned stakeholders that we as a society need to put an end to this menace and crack down on poppy cultivators and drug traffickers everywhere.

Daily Wage, Permanent Relief

Farzana Mumtaz

“Our govt will be regularizing 60,000 daily wagers & casual labourers working in various departments in J&K to provide sustainable livelihoods to those who need it the most,” tweeted Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti few days back, which many have seen a big stride towards solving this complicated and serious issue .

Daily Wagers and Casual Labourers have become symbols of agitation over the past few decades owing to their unfulfilled demands.

 

 

Some years back the state Finance ministry stated that 61,446 casual/seasonal /need-based employees were engaged in as many as 31 government departments.The reply added that at present wage rate of such workers was Rs 150 per day however in someDepartments,

The need-based and part-time workers were being paid consolidated wages at varying rates.

Importantly, this  reply also contained  department-wise number of such employees with Public Health Engineering-Irrigation and

Flood control (PHE/I&FC) department alone employing 23711

followed by Forest Department (7171), R&B (6692), Agricultureproduction (4383) and Housing and Urban Development(3922). In a worrying development despite the  state government imposing  a blanket ban on appointment of daily wagers on several instances, these people were engaged by various departments under different names such as casual workers and need-based workers.

After the State was burdened with huge appointments of daily wagers by polity that lacked foresight , what followed was the Lack of concrete policy on daily wagers, no regularization policy, huge delay in payment of salaries has defined the plight of daily wagers. With crisis growing into a disaster Daily Wager issue was among the  serious issue that has been surfacing as a very big headache  for the state administration and successive governments.

Importantly, The panel headed by Chief Secretary BB Vyas submitted its report to the finance department in October, stating that the total number of workers engaged in 31 departments under 15 different categories, including casual labourers and seasonal workers, was 1,00,501.

Syed Mohammad Haadi, an expert voice on it stated  “We should all welcome the decision of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to regularize the daily wagers as agitation was becoming only means for these daily wagers over past many years .The daily wagers have faced great number of serious issues mainly due to very meager amount paid and that too after much delays .One is hopeful that the recent policy decision from the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti will be implemented in letter and spirit. Once the daily wage issue is solved with great vision and pragmatics it will take state to new level of transparency.’’

One hopes there would be light at the end of dark tunnel on byDaily wage issue with announcement on daily wage issue by CM.