Agriculture dept employees not paid salaries for nearly 2 yrs

Over 800 agricultural technocrats, whose services were regularised in 2011, were not paid salaries for nearly two years, their union claimed today.
"The 881 agricultural technocrats have not received their salaries for the past 22 months owing to the delay tactics of the officials concerned," J&K Agricultural Technocrat Association (JKATA) President Surinder Radotra said here.
He said that the employees have been facing various hardships due to the non-payment of their salaries.
"You can well understand the plight of the family members when their bread-earners have not been paid salaries for the past 22 months," Radotra said.
The funds have already been released by the State Finance Department to pay the pending salaries of these agricultural technocrats but there has been a delay on part of the department, he added.

JKATA has appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra to intervene and instruct the officials of the Agriculture Department to release their pending salaries at the earliest.
When contacted, the Director Agriculture Jammu S S Jamwal said that the state was going through a financial crisis and a large part of funds received by the department was already distributed.
"We had to prioritise the utilisation of the funds and they have been done the same way. We are hopeful that soon the employees will get their pending salaries," Jamwal said.