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3 min readJammuFeb 11, 2026 07:28 AM IST
In a relief to nearly 60,000 daily wage workers in the Union Territory, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Tuesday announced that his government would start the process of their regularisation this year. He also said that all tourist destinations closed after the Pahalgam attack last year would be reopened in the next few months.
Replying to the discussion on the UT’s Budget for 2026-27 amid protests by Opposition BJP legislators in the Assembly, Abdullah said, “I can understand their frustration, because they had not expected us to present such a good Budget. We have brought a Budget for the welfare of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, including the youth, the backward and the downtrodden.”
“And God willing, we will start this year the process of regularisation of daily wagers, who have moved from pillar to post,” he added.
The regularisation of daily wagers, most of whom have been working for the past 20-30 years on meagre wages, has been a long-standing issue facing the governments of J&K. The Omar Abdullah government had last year constituted a high-level committee to examine all the legal, financial and administrative aspects of the regularisation of daily wagers, so as to have a fair, transparent and sustainable policy framework to resolve the issue.
Regarding the tourist destinations, he said the matter was discussed with the Central government and that all the destinations in Jammu and Kashmir “will be reopened in the coming few months”.
Abdullah delivered his nearly 30-minute address amid protests from BJP members of the House, who expressed anger when he criticised the India-US trade deal as being disadvantageous to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“I am still trying to understand how it has been advantageous for Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, adding that the as per the “fine print which we have agreed, you may have saved Kerala’s sea food industry or somewhere else, but the things you have allowed duty free entry into India include tree nuts, which includes walnut, almonds and dry fruit.”
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“Where are these grown?” he asked, addressing the agitating BJP members.
The agreement has even adversely hit the horticulture sector in the Jammu region, where the government had, with a lot of difficulty, introduced kiwi fruit and bee colonies, he said.
BJP members continued to raise slogans, and some of them were expunged by the Speaker.
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