J&K: Horticulture institute shunts out 150 workers due to financial crunch

The Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) in Srinagar has disengaged 150 workers as the Central government has reduced its funding. The institute is currently working under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research. The institute has been hiring workers for the last two decades for infrastructural and agricultural development.

Srinagar: The Central Institute of Temperate Horticulture (CITH) in Srinagar has disengaged 150 workers as the Central government has reduced its funding. The institute is currently working under the Indian Council of Agriculture Research. The institute has been hiring workers for the last two decades for infrastructural and agricultural development.

Meanwhile, some agitated workers are protesting at the gate of the institute demanding resumption of their job.

The Director of the institute, Dr. O C Sharma, told ETV Bharat that the institute is facing a financial crunch hence it is bound to impact its research and manpower. He has raised the issue with the central government but in vain.

The protesting labourers said that they have build the institute with their blood and sweat in the last two decades and it is shocking that the government has rendered them wageless.

"The government is claiming 'Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikas'. On the contrary poor workers like us are thrown out of the work," Adil Ahmad, a representative of the labourers, told ETV Bharat.

Altaf Ahmad Meer, another labourer, added, "Unemployment is rising in Jammu and Kashmir so much that there is no work even for small-time workers. We have worked for decades for the institute, where shall we go now?"

Meer further adds that the workers and the institute officials were pinning their hopes on the budget to allot funds to the agriculture research but they were all disappointed.