J&K govt tells Kashmiri Pandit employees to join work within 15 days or face termination

Jammu: Acting tough against the Kashmiri Pandit migrant employees, the Jammu and Kashmir government on Monday asked them to join their duties within 15 days or face termination. A group of migrant teachers on Thursday had staged a demonstration and threatened “mass resignations”, a day after they were asked to rejoin their duties in Kashmir within a week. “I bring to their (Kashmiri Pandit migrant employees) notice that if they don’t join in Kashmir as per the notice period of 15 days, they will be terminated,” Jammu and Kashmir education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari told reporters at a function on Monday. The minister said, “We have to give more 3,000 jobs to Kashmiri Pandit migrant boys and girls. They are getting jobs to serve in Kashmir as a special dispensation under the prime minister’s special package,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_3855145” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] “We urge these migrant employees to join their services at the Directorate of Education in Kashmir. I assure them that they will not be posted at places where there is a security threat,” Bukhari said. “The minister said that they cannot sit in Jammu and get salaries as the essence of the order to serve Kashmir will be defeated,” he added. “They will be settled in Kashmir. Their security and housing is paramount. I promise them that I will ensure their security”, Bukhari said. On 27 July, the employees had staged the protest outside the relief and  rehabilitation commissioner’s office at Canal Road in the heart of the winter capital under the banner of All Parties Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC). The state government on 26 July had asked migrant employees, who left Kashmir in 2016 due to prolonged unrest following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani, to report to the Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) within a week’s time. On failure to do so, the authorities have threatened to take disciplinary action against them.