4000 daily wagers in Samba fooled by PHE department

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Aug 6: Public Health Engineering (PHE) department has turned its back on 4000 youth of Dabhu area of district Samba who were engaged as daily wagers in the department. Most of them have not been paid salaries for last four years.

This issue came into light recently when a delegation of youth, met PHE Minister Sham Lal Sharma and urged him to release their salaries. But to their shock, Minister told them that department has not received any files or order regarding their engagement in the department as daily wagers.

Sources said that it is a case of fraud and the people sitting at the helm of affairs have played with the career of youth, who are working for the department thinking that they will get salary.

Most of them are working day and night to earn bread for them and their families but due to casual approach of some of the officials future of thousands of youth are on stake.

One of the youth said that about four year back the then Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) asked to submit their documents in the department for their appointment as daily wagers but till date they did not get a penny from the PHE department.

People maintained that whenever they approached the concerned officers they were assured that the documents have been forwarded to the higher authorities for recommendation and verification.

When contacted Chief Engineer, PHE K K Gupta said the department is getting some documents from Samba district for verification purposes but only 700 people would be considered.

“I don’t have any knowledge about engagement of 4000 daily wagers and if these people have been engaged even without being paid any salary till date, still they should have received the appointment letter with them atleast”, Gupta said.

Gupta further said that if anybody appoints them with giving proper appointment letter from the department, then it is a crime and the culprit should be punished.

Till now government has failed to come up with a mechanism to pay the salary of these workers who are backbone of the department for keeping the water supply functional.