Why do we dump our garbage on the roads?

inam ul rehman 

We are a strange race in Kashmir. Constructing houses is our first priority. But we design our roofs, and ramps for the vehicles in such a way that we make sure that rainwater, snow should fall on the road because road belongs to the public. We eat number of things then dump their wrappers on the road. We are so proud of it that in the morning, instead of doing walk, we take the garbage of our houses and throw it on the roadside and then swagger as if we have conquered the Mt Everest. We don’t care because the road belongs to the public. Whatever is public it is the responsibility of the government to fix it. Isn’t it how we think? 

 

So goes our argument. Because over the years we have learnt that only two persons are responsible for all the mess that we are in: God, and government.

 

The snow that accumulates during winters in our backyards we push that out on the roads. All our neighbours, shopkeepers compete in this. In civilised nations people clear the road for the public, here we dump things on the road.  We are such a race that instead of keeping roads wide open we encroach it. Instead of keeping roads clean we dump all our garbage on the roads. No one can match our talent in encroaching roads, littering it with refuses. We are not ready to shell Rs 100, or 50 for a month to any sweeper who will keep our homes clean. We consider it our birth right to dump every refuse on the road. 

Then, as is our wont, we blame the government for rise in the canine population. 

 

We are legends when it comes to parking vehicles. We park wherever we like. Even if we have to buy a month’s grocery, we park our vehicles on the middle of the road. It does not matter that we are blocking the flow of traffic on the road. Urban, rustic, educated, illiterate, young, old, men, women, we all park our vehicles this way.  We berate administration’s inaction but never question ourselves. 

 

Think, just for a few moments, of roads without any refuse, roads without any encroachment, roads without dogs. Think how our Kashmir would look if we refuse to dump our junk on the roads.  

We always demand rights but never talk of responsibilities we have.       

 

Remember, eternal changes come from the grassroots not from the top-down approach. 

Why does KUMSA charge hafta money from employees’?

 Every year it pockets more than Rs 50 lakh, but does not answer where it spends it!

 

inam ul rehman 

 

Many of you must have seen Bollywood movies where gangsters, policemen demand “hafta”. It is a “protection” money that every businessman from a billionaire to roadside vendor has to pay for smooth functioning of his/her business. This “hafta” money is never accountable to the people, and is demanded according to whims of the gang leader. 

 

The University of Kashmir has a few employees’ unions. One of them, and the largest, is the Kashmir University ministerial staff association, known as KUMSA. Now, don’t ask me why the word “ministerial” is put here. I became a permanent employee (permanence has a great value in government service) 6 years ago, but came to know recently that a sum of Rs 255, is deducted every month from the salaries of all non-teaching employees, including me. And this is done without our consent. Although the place where I work is a technical institute, and I work on a technical post as such does not come under KUMSA, yet money is siphoned off from my account! Without seeking any consent from non-teaching employee this money goes into the coffers of the KUMSA accounts. Remember hafta is also sought without the consent of businessmen.    

 

Why is no one informed that a non-teaching job in the University of Kashmir means becoming a de-facto member of the KUMSA? Why is no consent sought from employees whether they would like to be a part of this monthly contribution or not? 

 

If you look individually the sum of Rs 255 is pigmy, but then multiple this sum with 1860 employees that are put under this umbrella it amounts to Rs 4,74,300 per month. Now multiple the latter with 12 and it becomes a gigantic amount of 56,91,600. Fifty-six lakh ninety one thousand and six hundred rupees per year! And this is without the interest that this sum generates in the bank. Imagine with this money you can construct a luxurious house every year, or buy 6 high end models of Ford eco sport vehicles.  This amount is going to balloon as the KUMSA is in the process of increasing it by Rs 100 after every three years. 

 

Not content with it the KUMSA in a dictatorial way also siphoned Rs 500 from 1860 members who received their due arrears in lieu of 7th pay commission. Nine lakh and thirty thousand rupees more were added to the coffers of this association without employees’ consent. 

 

Where does this money go?who takes this money?where is this money utilised? No one knows. Because the KUMSA is not accountable to anyone, it does not give yearly report of its accounts. There is no transparency. There is no database of the money. It does not hold annual meet where members will come to know what this association is doing. Instead its functioning is dictatorial, be it siphoning the money from the salary account of employees, or announcing any “welfare policy” which means siphoning more money from the accounts of employees.    

 

If one takes its three-year “performance” report which it released recently for election purposes one gets to know that it has spent only Rs 30.2 lakh in the past three years, of which Rs 19.8 lakh it will receive back as it is a loan given to employees to meet their exigency requirements at home.  The report says that on account of KUMSA emergency relief fund (KERF) in case of accidents, Rs 25,80,000 (129 x 20000), KERF (death cases) Rs, 3,80,000 (19 x 20000), and employees with fatal disease were provided Rs 29,15,000 (53 x 55000), which amounts to 

Rs 58,75,000.  

 

It means a total of Rs 88,95,000 were distributed in the past three years out of the sum of Rs 1,80,04800 (without the interest money). Which implies that more than 90 lakh rupees is unaccounted if we take the sample of only three years. Also, one should not forget that the previous unions have also taken this money on the same pattern and no one knowns where that money is! (Just to remind readers that this “performance” report is filled with factually incorrect details which along with its newly released constitution will be discussed in the next blog.)  If KUMSA siphons Rs 56 lakh every year from employees’ salary where is the rest of the money that amounts to crores? 

 

When I came to know that I have become a de-facto member of this association without any consent sought from me, and also money deducted from my salary account, I put in written my resignation as a member of KUMSA, and asked it to return the money. I waited for two months but the money continuous to be siphoned off from my account.  

 

As I wrote above KUMSA is not answerable to anyone. 

 

There are no perfect unions. Every union has its own vices, but it is the quality of great unions that they minimise their vices, particularly when it comes to the money. Money leaves its trails throughout and its traces are hard to wipe out. 

 

Every non-teaching employee who becomes its de-facto member should ask the KUMSA to return the money that has been siphoned off from their hard-earned salaries. It is time to stop KUMSA from extorting hafta from hapless employees. Return our money, or face the music in courts.