Horticulture graduates at the Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST) Kashmir continued their protest for the third consecutive day on Wednesday over what they termed as “flawed” recruitment rules framed by the government for filling up various posts in government departments.
The protesting students have locked the entry and exit gates of the university’s Shalimar campus while demanding that government should re-advertise the posts and “rectify” the eligibility criteria.
They said that they will end their protest only after an assurance from the university administration and the government that their grievance will be addressed.
With regard to their reservations over the recruitment rules, the protesting students accused the government of ruining their career saying that one-year diploma holders (BHT) had been kept eligible for Horticulture Technician-1V posts whereas professional degree holders (B. Sc. Horticulture graduates) were ironically deprived from the eligibility.
They said that in the in the recently advertised posts of Canning Instructor, the JKSSB had set Degree/Diploma in Food Processing or Fruit Preservation as eligibility criteria for the post, however in case of Horticulture Technician-IV, Diploma holders had been exclusively made eligible to apply.
“Such a blunder in eligibility criteria by the higher-ups in the administration has left the unemployed horticulture professionals in a state of despair,” a protesting student alleged.
The aggrieved students demanded withdrawal of the said posts till the eligibility is “rectified as per the justified eligibility criteria”.
They demanded the related amendment in the eligibility criteria be brought about on priority basis as they have been waiting for the vacancies for more than a decade.
The protesting Horticulture graduates further complained that there had been no progress in the 2018 Rehbar-e-Baghbani scheme proposal by the department for engaging professionals they said had added to their miseries.