Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister and Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has announced that the Congress party will hold a major protest demonstration on August 19 regarding the demand for the regularization of Kaushal Nigam workers and other issues. Senior party leaders, the Haryana Congress in-charge, the state party president, MPs, MLAs, office bearers, and party workers will participate in the event. Senior leader Ashok Arora has been entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating this protest. Addressing a press conference at his residence, Hooda stated that the Congress demands the regularization of all employees engaged under the ‘Kaushal Nigam’ (Skill Corporation) and insists that future recruitments be permanent rather than contractual.
“During the assembly elections, the BJP had announced the regularization of 125,000 ‘Kaushal’ workers to garner their votes. However, even after nearly two years, these contractual employees have not received any law or official notification regarding their regularization. Consequently, the threat of losing their jobs constantly looms over them; the government frequently dismisses these workers on one pretext or another,” he said.
He pointed out that while ‘Kaushal’ workers are paid a meagre ₹15,000–₹20,000 for their work, permanent employees receive a salary of at least ₹60,000 for the same tasks. ‘Kaushal’ workers should also receive pay parity with them.
“The BJP had spread misinformation among these employees and their families during the elections, falsely claiming that a Congress government would remove them from their jobs. In reality, both then and now, the Congress has demanded that HKRN daily-wage workers be made regular government employees and be granted all facilities, such as equal pay, healthcare benefits, leave, travel allowances, and reservation, comparable to those of regular staff,” he stated.
“Future recruitments should be conducted on a regular basis based on merit. Neither the concerned department nor HKRN considers the contractual personnel deployed through HKRN as their own employees (HKRN maintains that it acts merely as an intermediary, not an employer); the demand is for the government to grant them legal status,” he added.
