The News Craving
Srinagar, August 9: The pensioners of Jammu and Kashmir Wakf board have made a fervent appeal to Chairman Dr. Darakhshaan Andrabi to settle their pension cases which have been halted in Waqf office since April last year so that they could be paid pension salary and other incentives due to the them.
They said due to halting their due pension their families are facing tough times for their livelihood . They have alleged that after superannuation from the Waqf Board services since last April , the employees have not been paid a penny out of their due pensionary benefits and incentives ,without any reason , leaving them and their families in distress .
They said after giving their full youth to the Waqf Board for over thirty years , on small posts and meager salaries , their pensions , Waqf authorities have kept their pension cases pending in the Waqf office ,leaving families of these poor employees in distress and shock. Without getting monthly pension salary , it has become very difficult for them and their families especially in the present day tough times when the prices of essential commodities were out of the bounds of a common man and inflation has broken back bone of even the well off people. They have sought personal intervention of Dr Darkhshaan Andrabi to clear their pension cases , pending in the waqf office since about last 2 years.
They said if their pension and incentives were not released , their families would die a slow death due to starvation . “ During their employment in Waqf Board on meagre salaries , we were feeding their families with great difficulties . Now , at the fag end of our life , we have been left without any source and support. How was it possible to feed our families without the pensionary support “, said an aggrieved retired waqf board employee adding that monthly pension payment was their last hope to live in the fag end of their life .
The retired employees said that the Wakf board has enormous resources and income worth crores of rupees, but unfortunately “our pension has been arbitrarily halted , without fore – seeing disastrous affects of this ill conceived decision .”
“ Without retirement benefits and monthly pension support ,how can we survive . We have many times tried try to meet Chairperson Wakf board, Dr. Darakhshaan Andrabi ji but she remains too busy with field visits. Why the pension cases of all employees who have retired after April 2022, have been halted by the Waqf board ,despite Waqf having good income . Wakf authorities have not even issued any circular as to why the pensionary benefits have been halted, making it a violation of Wakf Act, 2007. “
The retired employees of the Waqf Board have made a fervent appeal for immediate release of their pensionary benefits that are due to them from the Wakf board so that they were not compelled to come on roads for protest .
As per figures available on web , Waqf Board has 19,888 properties worth millions of crores. “However, due to excessive exploitation of expenditures and plunder of funds by previous regimes, both the assets and the Wakf employees have suffered immensely . 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,” they said.
The aggrieved employees have said , instead of chocking life of its retiring employees ,Waqf board should tighten noose around the the land grabbers and also revise outdated rental of its properties to make the Board economically strong.
