SRINAGAR: The Jammu and Kashmir government Wednesday approved a scheme for the promotion of Kashmiri Pandit (KP) employees engaged under the Prime Minister’s job package but the agitating Pandit employees said their’s is a security concern and they won’t accept anything less than relocation to Jammu.
The Administrative Council (AC), which met here today under the chairmanship of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, approved the scheme for the promotion of PM package employees, an official spokesman said.
The scheme envisages maintaining separate seniority for KP employees appointed under the PM package, by respective appointing departments which will run parallel to the seniority of regular employees and will take effect from the date of appointment against the supernumerary posts under the PM Package.
However, the KP employees recruited under PM’s package said it is an administration issue while their demand concerns security.
“We are demanding relocation to Jammu after the recent targeted killings in the Valley. There is total fear in the Valley and we don’t consider ourselves safe in Kashmir. It is better for the administration to send our posts to Jammu,” said a Kashmiri Pandit employee, pleading anonymity.
He said they won’t accept anything less than relocation to Jammu.
The government-sanctioned creation of pre-facto supernumerary posts at corresponding higher levels to pave way for timely career progression of migrant KP employees, by reducing the supernumerary posts at lower levels in the same ratio.
However, these promotions will be based on seniority and eligibility requirements as per the recruitment rules.
The government has also re-designated all posts under the PM Package as divisional level posts in the Kashmir division.
"The implementation of the scheme will be monitored at the highest level to ensure that the eligible employees avail the benefits of the scheme at the earliest," the official spokesman said.
As per PM’s job package, which was rolled out in 2008-09, employment has been provided to about 6000 Pandit youth.
The fear-stricken Pandit employees are demanding relocation to Jammu after the recent spate of targeted killings by militants in the Valley. Five non-Muslims including a Kashmiri Pandit, two minority community members from Jammu, a bank manager from Rajasthan and a labourer from Bihar have been shot dead by militants in Kashmir since May.
Kashmir Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), a Kashmiri Pandit group, termed the promotion scheme an “eyewash”.
“#EyeWash #Promotion is a right and not a dole. @OfficeOfLGJandK isn't this unusual, when #PackageEmployees submitted #representations about this issue, you gave #ColdShoulder to them and now this approval just to dislodge their protest exposes #Administrations' mean and scary face (sic),” tweeted KPSS.