J&K CM discusses autonomy report with Manmohan amid employee strike

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah yesterday morning discussed the Justice Sageer Ahmad's report on centre-state relations vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting here with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, official sources said.
Abdullah thanked the prime minister for getting the reports of all the five working groups - announced and constituted after the second round table conference on Kashmir in May 2006 - and urged him that a process to implement the reports should be undertaken.
He is reported to have told Singh that the implementation of the recommendations of the working groups would help connect the people of Jammu and Kashmir with the rest of the country in a big way. This, he feels, would bolster the confidence level and decimate the trust deficit that exists at the moment.
Abdullah also raised the subject of quiet talks with separatists.
Meanwhile, Government employees Wednesday struck work across the Kashmir Valley, demanding implementation of the agreement signed between their representatives and the Jammu and Kashmir government this August.
Government offices in the state's summer capital Srinagar and other district headquarters in the Valley wore a deserted look as employees went on a day's protest strike.
'The state government signed an agreement with us Aug 18, confirming the implementation of our demands by October 2009,' said Farooq Ahmad Trali, chief spokesperson of the government employees' joint action committee here.
'We have already waited for two months beyond the deadline, but our demands have not been met so far,' he added.
Besides the implementation of the recommendations of the sixth pay commission, the state government, according to the employees' spokesperson, had agreed to enhancement of the retirement age from 58 to 60 years, release of 40 percent arrears of the pay commission, conversion of cost of leaving allowance into dearness allowance for those working in public sector undertakings and regularisation of employees working as daily wagers in various government departments.