| Omar upsets unemployed Forestry graduates, reached out to stone-pelters | | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, June 20: Disappointed with the Omar Abdullah Government's failure to take them into the regular service, about 700 Forestry graduates and post-graduates have threatened self-immolation outside the Civil Secretariat and Assembly complex if all the vacancies of the Range Officers, Assistant Directors of the defunct Forest Protection Force and Assistant Conservators of Forest (ACFs) were not notified through the State Public Service Commission (PSC) or some other independent recruitment board within the next 15 days.
"Should we pick up the gun, resort to stone pelting on Government properties and ambulances or burn the official vehicles to attract the Chief Minister's attention?", Tariq Ahmad of Safakadal Srinagar, who has completed his Bachelors in Forestry Science 12 years ago and is doing an inferior private job, asked. He suggested that Omar Abdullah had completely lost his self-confidence and seemed to be working in panic after NC's unprecedented setback in the recent Lok Sabha elections. "All Forest Ministers, from Chowdhary Ramzan to Mohiuddin Sofi, Shabir Khan to Tariq Karra and now Mian Altaf have ditched us only to sustain the vacuum so as to accommodate their kith and kin on stop gap arrangement on senior positions", said 39-year-old Shabir Ahmad of Anantnag who had actually crossed the old age bar two years back.
"What's the fun of raising the eligibility age from 37 to 40 years for the Open Merit category when you are not going to notify the 600-odd vacancies of ROs, ADs and ACF for recruitment through PSC?", Abdul Hamid Wani of Baramulla asked. He pointed out that with the exception of 40 ACFs and 9 ROs in 2011, the State Government has never made any gazetted appointments in the Territorial Forest or its allied departments since 1984. "Whenever someone reaches superannuation or resigns, his post is being kept vacant. Suddenly, some influential politician's' or bureaucrat's illiterate or uneducated relative is appointed as the "incharge" officer.
In absence of the substantive officers, the incharge officials function as DFOs and Range Officers. Sometimes, they get additional charge of adjoining divisions and ranges, Tehseena, who has completed her M Sc Forestry from Agra 10 years ago, said. She complained that all the Forest Ministers in J&K in the previous Governments were either incompetent or corrupt. "Mian Sahib is a politician of good reputation but the problem is that he does not take interest in anything that does not benefit the Gujjar community", Tehseena, who sold her mother's jewelry to pursue her PG, lamented. "Had there been 20 or 30 ST candidates among us, we would have been appointed in Government service long ago".
Members of the delegation of the Forestry graduates who interacted with Early Times questioned Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's "exhibitionism" in reaching out to the stone pelters who had indulged in violence, damaged ambulances and private cars and torched Government properties. "Even if Omar Sahib takes them all to the Heaven, none of them will vote. They want freedom from India and nothing short of that. We want to live a peaceful life, cast a vote and do a service to the nation. Why should the Government's doors be shut for us?", a 35-year-old female from Magam, Budgam, said. |
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