New Delhi, Oct 1: It’s been a long lonely fight for five septuagenarian Kashmiri migrant teachers who have been demanding their rightful dues – salary, gratuity and pension.
With IANS taking up their cause, help and assurances have started pouring in.
The Congress’s Rajya Sabha MP, Vivek Tankha in his post on X said, “Sad affairs for KPs on J&K… our unsung people!! And I am sure there must be many others.” He said, “The community has been struggling for survival. Even though the nation empathises with them, precious little has been done for them and IANS story has revealed that the old and senior Kashmiri Pandits continue to be unsettled.” The Congress leader assured that he will take up the case.
Reacting to the apathy that the elders have been facing, actor Bhasha Sumbli (‘The Kashmir Files’) has said: “This is the bitter truth. The elderly Kashmiri Pandits were the hardest hit by the forced exodus. The struggle of the five teachers reveals the apathetic attitude of the system. It breaks hearts. Nobody cares for them. Your story reveals this.”
For Onkar Nath Ganjoo, one of the five teachers who have been seeking justice, it’s a tough battle against an apathetic system. He says: “We have faced so many problems. Nobody is listening to us and no one cares. We have given our prime to the school. We have been left to our fate. It’s almost the end of my life. Two of my best friends and colleagues have passed away.”
“Hope good sense prevails and the education department listens to us and takes decisions in our favour,” says retired teacher Ashok Kumar Kaul.
The five septuagenarian Kashmiri migrant teachers and their families have been silently and diligently fighting to get what they claim is their due – salary, gratuity and pension. The elderly and retired teachers had almost given up on their demands, but the abrogation of Article 370 and the application of Central laws in J&K, gave them the hope. The struggle, however, has not decreased as they say the system is slow and apathetic.
With no support from any quarter, the retired teachers from a prominent public school, National High School, Karan Nagar in J&K’s Srinagar, have been struggling to get their dues.
In this era of social media campaigns when nothing escapes public scrutiny, the case of the five Kashmiri Pandit teachers has gone unnoticed. Fighting ill-health, government apathy and with no civil society to take up their case, the elders have nevertheless not given up on hope. The only fear for them is not the official indifference, but the life ticking away. Two of their colleagues have passed away and the remaining three are now hoping that before life goes away, justice comes their way. Onkar Nath Ganjoo, 79, Shambu Nath Kachroo, 76 and Ashok Kumar Kaul, 69, are the three out of the five who first took up the fight. The other two included M.K. Dhar, the principal of the school when forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits took place, passed away in 2021 at 82; and Roshan Lal Bhat, who passed away early this month at 74. (IANS)
