Five J&K teachers forced out of Valley in 1990 fight lonely battle for their dues; two have died

New Delhi: 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 hope. The struggle, however, has not ceased, 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, Srinagar, have been struggling to get their dues.

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 official indifference, but that their life is ticking away.

Two of their colleagues have passed away and the remaining three are now hoping that before it's sunset for them, justice comes their way.

Omkar 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, principal of the school when the forced exodus of Kashmiri Pandits took place, passed away in 2021 at 82; and Roshan Lal Bhat, who breathed his last in September at 74.

They were among those who were forced to flee Kashmir in 1990 when terrorism struck the valley. They were teachers at the National High School, Srinagar. All of them had put in a minimum of 25 years of service in the school and were very popular among the students. Dhar had received the J&K government's Best Teachers Award in 1980.

As most of the teachers had received threats and were advised to leave by their good Muslim friends and neighbours, in the absence of security and administration, the Kashmiri Pandits had no option but to flee, leaving their job and property. Most of those who fled the valley were hopeful of returning soon, but the situation never improved, and days became years and then decades. The return never happened.

After the initial years of struggle for survival outside Kashmir, the teachers settled in places where their children took up jobs. In the mid-1990s as the situation improved in the valley, local students and teachers returned to National High School, but for these teachers it was never the same.

Having crossed the retirement age, the teachers started their fight for pension, which went on for some years, and finally the school management took a sympathetic view and allowed them a monthly pension out of their Provident Fund.

The amount varied from a mere Rs 700 to Rs 1,000 per month. But even this meagre amount provided the teachers a world of happiness.

It was not just money, but an acknowledgement of their decades of hard work which had made the National High one of the most sought-after schools in Srinagar. It was where the late Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah and then his son Farooq were regulars at annual functions, and when the exodus took place, the school had on its rolls around 3,000 pupils.

The monthly pension was never regular; often it would be months together before they would get the amounts due to them. And pension stayed put at between Rs 700-Rs 1,000, irrespective of inflation.

In 2018, the school was taken over by the J&K government and converted into a heritage institution owing to its nearly 100-year-old existence. The teachers had hoped that their dues would be taken care of. But nothing happened. The once-in-a-while payment of Rs 700-1000 also stopped. Letters and pleas fell on deaf ears. The administration was not listening and nobody cared.

Finally, Delhi High Court lawyer Ramesh Wangnoo took up their case and has been fighting ever since. He says, "I was so moved by their story that I decided to help them pro bono. Nobody was ready to even listen to them. I fought with the system and managed to get the administration to acknowledge the PF arrears till the time the school was taken over. They got those arrears last year. The sum was meagre, a few thousands for all of them. That’s it.

"Now I have been fighting for their salaries till superannuation and gratuity, besides a regular pension for them. The Education Department's system is so pathetic that the work on their file (No. 470327) and L-G Secretariat's Grievance Redressal Cell (No. 999003982805) is progressing at a snail's pace.

"Two out of these five have passed away waiting for justice to be done. The other three are also very senior and at the sunset of their lives. I will fight as much as I can. The wives of the other two deserve family pension."

Wangnoo emphasises that after the abrogation of Article 370, all Central laws are applicable in J&K. "How can the dues, even gratuity, be denied to them?" he asks. "The government owes them. The teachers are not demanding any favours. These are their legal and rightful dues."

Sharing more details, Wangnoo says: “I hope the Education Department wakes up and decides on their case on top priority as the matter has gone up to the level of Principal Secretary, Education, Alok Kumar and mails are also being forwarded to the L-G Secretariat Grievance Redressal Cell as well as the Adviser to the Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar.

"The matter has also been endorsed by Dr Jitendra Singh, MP from J&K and Minister of State in the PMO, and Under Secretary Rajender Kumar Dutta of the Department of Pensions and Pensioners' Welfare, Union Ministry of Personnel," Wangnoo adds, expressing the hope that the Education Department "will decide the case at the earliest without any reminders".

Two of the five teachers already have passed away; for the remaining three, it’s a race against time.