State Agriculture Department presents a picture of a paralysed organ of the body that refuses to function as expected. According to records of the Agriculture Department, the last DPC was held in 1982 and after that there were over 20 litigations in the Jammu and Kashmir High Court filed by aggrieved officers of the department leading to no DPC meeting. Four Joint directors of the department retired recently as Agriculture Assistants as no DPC was held since they were eligible for the promotion resulting ub huge financial losses to them.
The department is ridden with negative approach to normal procedures of regularisation and promotion of its cadres which has given rise to large scale litigation on both sides. 2008 order promoting about 700 officers has been put in abeyance owing to court case. Service of 300 Rehbar-e Ziraat officers for promotion is counted from the date they were appointed as ReZ and not from the date on which they were appointed as Village Extension Workers (VEW). The department has won notoriety for litigation as it has dragged its staff right up to the level of the Supreme Court. There seems some bureaucratic bottleneck putting things in disarray in the department and hence the Chief Secretary should intervene and help remove the grievances of the employees. It does the department no good to drag its functionaries to litigation.
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