Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 12: Habitual of making a mockery of standing Government rules and norms, the Director Agriculture Kashmir has once again issued the promotion orders of State cadre posts by misusing his official position thereby generating a lot of resentment among the Agriculture Extension Assistants (AEAs) cadre of the Department.
According to sources, the Director Agriculture Kashmir some days back issued promotion orders of 28 Agriculture Extension Assistants (AEAs) to the post of Junior Agriculture Extension Officers of Kashmir valley thereby ignoring the employees of Jammu region after clearing them through the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) by ignoring the laid down norms for the same also and ignoring the posts belong to the UT Cadre.
The decision has generated a lot of resentment among the cadre in Jammu who felt totally neglected and deprived of their rights, sources said, adding the posts belong to the UT Cadre and promotions were to be granted on the same lines. The Department had not only granted the higher promotions to AEAs but also placed them in the higher grade of 35900-113500 with retrospective effect from March 1 last year, sources said.
They added that with this order the JEAs of Jammu who were appointed under the same order by the Government have become junior to their counterparts in Kashmir valley. The order has generated shock waves among the JEAs cadre in Jammu who openly challenged it and also termed the DPC constituted by Directorate of Agriculture Kashmir as unconstitutional.
While showing their resentment against the order the AEAs Cadre Jammu termed it a total discrimination with them saying that how can the officers of one region be promoted while that of other are ignored when the posts fall in UT Cadre and joining of service by the employees of both the region are same.
They also termed the order issued by Director Agriculture Kashmir as in total violation of General Administrative Department (GAD) SRO -375 dated 21-10-2010, SRO 442 dated 23-10-2017 and SRO 723 dated 25-10-2019 issued by Director Agriculture Kashmir by conducting the “unconstitutional DPC of AEAs.”
However, as the AEAs of Jammu created a hue and cry against the order depriving them of their promotion benefits and registered their protest against the impugned order, the Principal Secretary to Government Agriculture Department, Naveen Kumar Choudhary without losing any minute put the same on hold.
Talking to Excelsior, Choudhary said that he was not in know of the order and as soon as he came to know of it he put it on hold. He said the order for constitution of DPC was issued by his predecessor without taking other issues into consideration but assured that no employee will be deprived of his right.
It may be recalled that earlier twice the Director Agriculture Kashmir had made the promotion of agriculture officers in Kashmir Valley by constituting the DPC without following the set and established norms but after the protests by the employees in Jammu region the order was kept in abeyance.
Later in the month of February, over 100 officers of the Department in Kashmir valley were given higher assignments by flouting the norms and ignoring the cadre from Jammu. This too evoked a strong protest from the employees’ cadre in Jammu forcing the Department to rescind the order in the month of March.
Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Agriculture Technocrats Association while taking the serious exception to issuance of promotion orders on State cadre posts for Kashmir Division only has warned the officers to desist from such discriminative and biased activities.
President of the Association, Surinder Radhotra took up the issue with various leaders including MP Rajya Sabha, Shamsher Singh Manhas and sought their immediate intervention in the matter. He said that such discriminative approach of the authorities bent upon to spoil the future of the employees of Jammu region will not be allowed at any cost.
The JKATA has also sought the intervention of Lt Governor, G C Murmu in the matter and demanded that the process of DPC for Agriculture Technocrats of AEA cadre be held for both the regions of the J&K as per the spirits of SRO 375 of 2010 based on inter UT seniority of J&K cadre.
Radotra also demanded that whenever promotions to the State and UT cadre posts are to be considered, both the divisional level HoDs i.e Director Agriculture Jammu and Director Agriculture Kashmir should be part of the quorum in the DPC meeting so as to examine the inter seniority of division cadre posts of the feeing cadre which is to be considered for promotion to UT Cadre.
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