Revoke SRO 202, stop jeopardizing ‘right to equality’
False assurances of government from last three years to revoke it have added more frustration and chaos to J&K youth.
By: Bhat Zaieem
The J&K youth have always suffered due to the absurd and unjustifiable policies of the state government. A similar iniquitous policy was framed by PDP-BJB government in 2015, which has adversely affected the dignity and honor of employees recruited under the said scheme. SRO 202 is a case of gross injustice with the youth who are facing the brunt of such policies while the government has absolutely no satisfactory reason for issuing such orders. Although the employees falling under such arrangement left no stone unturned in their endeavour to challenge the policy, the government, on the other hand, has consistently, from last three years, given false assurances to such employees.
It is unfortunate is that the youth who have doctorate and post graduate degrees and get selected through a cut-throat competition are petted against such policies as a reward to their diligent work of their academic career spanning over twenty years. Such employees are selected through JKPSC and JKSSB, where the success rate is just 2-5%.
Leaving the efficient youth in trouble for sake of political goals is no less than turmoil and when the candidates would frequently request the govt to scrap the policy, they are told that it was meant to curb the financial crunch in the state. Moreover, the policy has created many a doubts in the minds of the employees employed under the said unfortunate scheme and there is no doubt that their conditions shall reflect in their work and the entire blame is to be put on the government.
‘Right to Equality ‘ has been shattered deeply here and the Supreme Court order that states ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ has been rendered meaningless and this policy has been the most unfair and appalling.
Moreover, according to the rules of this ordinance, recruitments made under it must be completed within a period of three months and appointment order to be issued within 15 days from the date of issuance of selection list. That is- posts were to be filled on fast track basis. But the government failed on this front as well as almost all the selections done under this policy took more than one and half year, on average, to complete and appointment orders were issued accordingly.
SRO 202 clearly mentions the reckoning of seniority from the date of its first appointment. Contrary to it, there are seniority disputes and atmosphere of animosity among Cadres/employees on a large scale. No pay protection is provided to in-service candidates as per CSR. Law and Finance Department already held it against the provisions of CSR and explicitly advised that provisions of SRO-202 were not applicable to in service candidates who applied through proper channel.
Till now, merely ten thousand appointments have been made under this policy. With implementation of seventh pay commission, the difference in salary between SRO 202 employees and their counterparts has been severely reduced and the difference ranges between four to six thousand. So, these few thousand rupees for some ten thousand employees must surely have very less financial implications for government.
With the elections round the corner, the issue has tremendously heated up and the youth have pinned their hopes on the governor administration which has been boosting about weeding out corruption from the system and encourage a just and transparent system. The revocation of the policy is the only way out and it must be accomplished before the issue is hijacked by the contending political parties for their politicking.
Author is a teacher at Department of Education and can be mailed at [email protected]
