Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) leader Muhammad Ashraf Mir on Thursday urged the J&K government to do away with the anomalies in Rehbar-e-Janglat (ReJ) policy.
In a statement, Mir said the forestry graduates and postgraduates who have already been recruited under ReJ were suffering because of the gross variation in their grade pay and other emoluments as compared to their counterparts recruited under Rehbar-e-Taleem, Rehbar-e-Zirrat and Rehbar-e-Khel schemes.
“The brazen disparity in remunerations of ReJ employees recruited under a policy similar to ReT, ReZ and ReK needs to be removed. The government must also ask the committee headed by the Chief Secretary to conclude its review of Rehbar-e-Janglat policy and come up with concrete recommendations without any further delay,” Mir said.
Contrary to other similar policies, the JKAP leader said a postgraduate recruit under Rehbar-e-Janglat policy has been compared with a forest guard, a post, which has comparatively lesser eligibility criteria as per J&K service recruitment rules.
“It is a sheer injustice with the forestry graduates that the government is implementing its own policies having identical genesis and objectives, in diametrically opposite directions, especially with regard to grade pays of the ReJ employees,” he said.
Mir said most of the Rehbar-e-Janglat employees have crossed the age bar and their chances of promotion in the department were minimal at this level thus further depriving them of career progression.
He said hundreds of employees with BSc, MSc and even PhD degrees in forestry who have been appointed as ReJs were suffering because of the discriminatory provisions of the ReJ policy.
“The government should immediately go for necessary modifications in the policy in order to provide some relief to thousands of forestry graduates. It is also hoped that the high level committee will come up with some concrete solutions to remove pay and eligibility anomalies in ReJ policy without any further delay,” Mir said.