No Categorical Explanation from Authorities
ABRAR MATTOO
SRINAGAR, Feb 24: Lal Hussain Khatana, a resident of Sangerwani which is a small remote village in Pulwama served in Jammu and Kashmir Wakf board for thirty years on small posts and took home a meagre salary of Rs. 15,000 thousand at the end of the month. He was the sole breadwinner for his family of six daughters and wife, who are currently living hand to mouth after Lal Hussain suffered a brain haemorrhage and heart attack simultaneously, two years ago and has been bedridden ever since.
His family was suggested by well-wishers in the Wakf board that they should apply for voluntary retirement on behalf of Lal Hussain, who may then be entitled to a pension, and also, the retirement money could be used to get a pacemaker for his heart. However, the Wakf board arbitrarily decided to halt the pension and other benefits of the retiring employees in April last year, and the aggrieved family received none of the benefits to which they were entitled. Though he was entitled to a pension of Rs. 5,000, that as well has been indefinitely refused by the Board.
“It was suggested that we should voluntarily retire our father and use the retirement money and other benefits for his medicines and treatment. Though they said that he will get only one-third (5,000) of his Rs. 15,000 salary, in pension, we agreed to it as well. We had no breadwinners in the family. However, it has been eight months since, and not a single penny has been credited. Neither his retirement money nor the pension and the benefits. We are living hand to mouth and do not even have money to buy medicines for him,” Mr. Khatana’s eldest daughter, Khalida Akhtar said while speaking with Kashmir Despatch.
“We have approached the concerned authorities many times, but nobody has touched our father’s file in the past eight months. When we try to meet Chairperson Wakf board, Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi, we are not allowed,” Miss Khalida added further.
Mr. Khatana and his family are not the only ones who have been pushed into a limbo of uncertainty–there are many more. Masud-ul-Haq, another Wakf employee, died on duty last year, and he has neither received the entitled reimbursements nor has the Board processed the request for SRO 43 in the name of one of his dependents.
Further, there are at least eight Wakf employees who have not received their pensionary benefits. Moreover, 737 employees, who are currently in service, are also about to be subjected to the same treatment upon their retirement. The board has also decided to indefinitely halt the privilege of working employees such as leave salary, gratuity, and dearness allowance, even when Wakf employees draw a comparably meagre salary.
Wakf has currently 737 employees in the Kashmir region, with 530 regular employees, and 207 working as consolidated. Nearly 241 employees who have retired before April 2022, are currently drawing pensionary benefits, giving rise to the calls of bias from recently retired employees or the ones who are currently working in the Board and may be subjected to the same treatment upon retirement. However, with Wakf being “filthy rich” the employees say that they do not deserve the treatment that they are meted.
With 19,888 properties worth millions of crores, the Jammu and Kashmir Wakf Board is the richest enterprise after the Government in Jammu and Kashmir. However, due to excessive exploitation of eurocrats and previous regimes, both the assets and the Wakf employees have suffered immeasurably.
The J&K Wakf board has nearly 99,653 Kanals of land in the Kashmir region, out of which 9,000 Kanals of prime land stands either illegally occupied, or has been encroached on by the leaseholders.
Ironically, the existing 90653 Kanals of land that remain leased out in Kashmir valley are also not generating the due revenue. According to the figures published on Wakf website in 2018, Wakf received a yearly rent of Rs. 98 and 98 Paisa on every Kanal of prime land in Kashmir valley. This quantum of land is so huge that is equal to 17.1% of the total land area in Srinagar.
The Wakf authorities have not issued any circular about why the pensionary benefits have been halted, making it a violation of Wakf Act, 2007. When Kashmir Despatch attempted to reach the Chairperson of Jammu and Kashmir Wakf Board, Dr. Darakhshan Andrabi for comments, she was not available to respond.
However, the employees of the Board have called for the immediate release of benefits that they are due from the Wakf board and are threatening to go on indefinite protest if their demands are ignored. With tall claims for Wakf’s top brass often reverberating in the media, It remains to be seen what would follow.
