Picking holes in the recruitment rules, the Sericulture graduates and post-graduate candidates of the Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agriculture Science and Technology -Kashmir have alleged that “non-professionals” were being preferred over professional candidates in recruitment of various posts.
The candidates said the professionals were ignored as the government has made no amendment in the recruitment rules over the years.
Greater Kashmir received distressed calls and emails from various candidates alleging that the SKUAST-K was ignoring professionals to “accommodate” the candidates with simple degrees.
“The sericulture department is purely technical and professional. The B Sc and M Sc sericulture were made ‘desirable’ for all the departmental posts as per SRO-202 of 2015, but the varsity still considers candidates with simple degrees for technical and professional posts,” an aggrieved candidate said.
He said that the non-professional B Sc and M Sc natural sciences students are considered eligible for such posts.
“This is injustice with sericulture professionals,” he said, adding that the sericulture professionals are also ignored by the Sericulture Department as well.
As per the candidates, around 180 trained sericulture graduates, 180 others with B.Sc. Sericulture (Honors) and 70 M.Sc and PhD research scholars have graduated from the university since 2006. The graduates, they said, were meant to serve the Sericulture Department but are still termed “ineligible” for various posts advertised by the university.
“Most of the departmental posts are filled by internal promotions from non-professional backgrounds. This practice has put the future of Sericulture graduates at stake,” the candidates said.
The aggrieved sericulture professionals urged the J&K administration that their grievance may be addressed in a time bound manner.
“The Temperate Sericulture Research Institute, SKUAST-K, Mirgund has been upgraded to College of Temperate Sericulture in the recent past. If the pass outs of the institute are not being considered worth serving in the department, the exercise is simply futile,” the sericulture graduates said.
Director, Sericulture Department, Manzoor Ahmad Qadri said that the recruitment was done by the Directorate under existing recruitment policy. “We do not ignore professionals, but the government has to make the amendments in the existing recruitment rules. Unless that is done, we will continue our recruitments as per the existing policy,” Qadri said.
Registrar SKUAST-K, Dr. Masud Ul Haq Wani did not respond to the repeated calls from this newspaper.