Preferring Diploma over Degree: Horticulture graduates on strike for 5th Consecutive Day
Abdul Basit
Srinagar, Feb 18: The Horticulture graduates and other degree holders of the allied sector are up in arms against the recruiting agencies of the state for preferring diploma holders over degree holders in the recruitment process.
The students of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences continue their protest on the 5th consecutive day outside the University campus at Shalimar aiming to attract the government’s attention towards its own alleged official apathy.
The protesting students say that the concerned department and the recruiting agencies are in slumber-still depending on obsolete eligibility rules despite the state having universities that offer degrees in Horticulture sciences. However, the government has not bothered to change the eligibility criteria till now that speaks volumes about the official apathy, lack of coordination between various government agencies and the lack of will of the government to recruit competent candidates.
Protesters said the government has shown surprising apathy towards the recruitment process as for about a decade not a single post has been advertised by the department for the degree holders. “Due to this grave negligence, most of the horticulture professionals are eagerly waiting to appear and qualify in the examination of the Horticulture department”.
The irony is that one-year diploma holders (BHT) have been kept eligible for horticulture Technician-IV posts whereas professional degree holders (B. Sc. Horticulture graduates) are treated incompetent/ineligible for the same.
The students demand withdrawal of the recently advertised posts of Horticulture Technician-IV posts till the eligibility is rectified as per the justified eligibility criteria (i.e., B.Sc. Horticulture/ BHT), “this amendment in the eligibility criteria shall be done on priority basis as we have been waiting for these vacancies for more than a decade,” protesters said.
