KC News Desk
Bandipora, March 11: The Annual Transfer Drive (ATD) Policy 2023, introduced to ensure fair and structured teacher transfers, has turned into a nightmare for hundreds of teachers who were assured relocation from hard zones to soft zones after one year of service.
However, despite fulfilling their mandated tenure, these teachers remain stuck in some of the harshest terrains of Jammu and Kashmir, with no clarity on their return.
The policy, initially welcomed for balancing teacher deployment, is now being criticized as a failed promise that has left many teachers feeling betrayed by the education department’s inaction. Teachers serving in areas like Gurez and other hard zones have raised serious concerns about delays in their transfers, questioning whether the system is truly committed to fairness.
Speaking anonymously to Kashmir Convener, a teacher, currently stationed in Hardzone Gurez near Line of Control (LoC), voiced his deep anguish. “The officials at the helm have displayed incompetence and a breach of trust. If the ATD policy states ‘one year in a hard zone,’ then one year must mean exactly that. They can’t play foul with teachers who upheld the policy in good faith.”
Another teacher, also from Zone V Gurez, echoed similar sentiments, emphasizing the unfair advantage enjoyed by those with bureaucratic and clerical backing. “Unlike others, we didn’t manipulate the system with fake medical certificates or political connections. We followed the rules. And yet, we are still here, as if we are mere numbers on a list, as if our families and personal lives do not matter.”
The teachers said, after completing their tenure they approached and knocked at every possible door – Ministers, Principal Secretaries (Education), Directors (Education), and Chief Education Officers – in hopes of a timely transfer.
Reassurances were given—words that have now begun to resemble mere folklore. “Before winter vacations,” they were told, “your transfers will be processed and by last week of February, 2025, it’ll be completed.” But winter has come and gone, and the promised transfers are nowhere in sight.
For these stranded teachers, the situation has taken an absurdist turn, much like Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, where the promised change remains a distant, elusive dream. As days stretch into months, they are left wondering: Are their transfers even possible? Or is this yet another chapter of systemic neglect and broken promises?
What remains undeniable is that the ATD Policy, once envisioned as a fair and transparent mechanism, has now become a source of endless suffering. The question now looms large—will the authorities finally act, or will these teachers continue to be lost in the bureaucratic maze, waiting for justice that never arrives?
