End strike, demands will be studied: Kashmir employees told

SRINAGAR - The demands of striking Jammu and Kashmir government employees will be considered if they end their strike, a senior minister said, as the strike entered the ninth day Monday.

“We will consider the demands sympathetically only after the strike is called off,” Law and Rural Development Minister Ali Muhammad Sagar told a group of reporters here late Sunday.

Sagar, a senior member of the National Conference-Congress government, was until now believed to be a strong advocate of breaking the impasse between the government and the striking employees through talks.

An official source told IANS that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had asked the administration to prepare a list of various leaders of employees’ unions who would be considered for dismissal if the strike was not called off in two days.

The government has invoked the Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) under which an employee can be dismissed, jailed and fined for disrupting the functioning of the administration.

All government offices, educational institutions and other government-run establishments across Jammu and Kashmir have been affected by the strike called by 4.5 lakh employees demanding payment of arrears and enhancement of retirement age from 58 to 60.