Qaiser Dar
Srinagar 27 July (KNB): Most of the personnel from 1986 and above batches of Jammu and Kashmir Armed Police have been left in a state of despair as their dream for promotions seems impossible to achieve.
Several Armed Police Personnel from these batches told news agency Kashmir News Bureau that while counting days in hope of promotions, they have reached the age of retirement.
“I have served the department for more than 30 years now. Even though I have always been a devoted performer of my duty but trust me, at times just the thought of promotions crushed me inside,” a head constable from the 1986 batch said, adding that he doesn’t even hope for any promotions now but at least for the young ones there shouldn’t be such delay and negligence towards them.
He said that there has not been much difference in the service towards the nation between J&K Armed Police and Executive Police but the discrimination in promotions faced by the former must be looked into.
“A few personnel were promoted recently from the ’86 batch but that is nothing as compared to the number of Head constables waiting for their dream to be raised to the rank of Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASI) for the last couple of decades,” he added.
Another Armed Police personnel told KNB that after looking at the state of 86 batch personnel, even the armed police personnel from the 1990’s batch have been rendered hopeless.
“While being on duty, serving the nation with high morale just coming across Executive Police personnel, be it from batch 1995 or earlier—who have already been promoted to the rank of ASI—just makes us ponder about what the future holds for us! The fact that head constables from 1986,87,88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93 and other batches of Armed Police have not been promoted to higher ranks yet; just makes us distressed,” he said.
He said that it is not about only a handful of armed police personnel, who feel the way he feels about the treatment towards them but almost every one of them has been in a state of distress for a long time.
“It is humiliating when the armed police personnel from 1986-87 batch and others come across the news of promotions for executive police personnel from 1995’s batch,” he emphasized.
Coming from the 1990 batch of Armed Police, he further asked, “ What is our fault? Why such discrimination in promotions?”
“We are deployed everywhere, have been fighting on the frontline of the encounters all these years but still we are being neglected and frustration has now reached its peak while thinking about the well-deserved promotions about which none of the higher authorities is paying any heed to” he added.
“There is only 20 per cent of the promotion quota for the Armed Police personnel, whereas the executive police have 80 per cent promotion quota,” he said, further asking, “What have they done to deserve this?”
Regarding the matter, ADGP Armed Police Jammu and Kashmir, S J M Gillani told news agency Kashmir News Bureau that the promotions take place against vacancies only.
“Both the wings, Executive and Armed Police are different and one cannot compare them,” he said, adding that whenever vacancies occur in any of the wings, promotions take place accordingly.
“We are trying to relax certain rules,” ADGP Gillani said, adding, “We also understand that there is stagnation in the promotion process and higher posts are just not available.”
“We are trying to address this issue by upgrading certain posts to eventually create vacancies,” he said, adding, “We are hopeful that we’ll be able to promote them.”
ADGP S J M Gillani told KNB that there may not be a difference in the duties that these two wings have but the posts and wings will remain separate.
Regarding the merging of the two wings, ADGP Armed J&K said that the government is now contemplating to do that at the level of Sub-Inspectors and above. “Then there will be a common seniority and the vacancies are distributed accordingly,” he added.
About the 20 per cent promotion quota for Armed Police and 80 per cent promotion quota for Executive Police, ADGP Gillani responded that there is no such quota. (KNB)