Even though college faculty joins the services as gazetted cadre officers and are considered among the top of government hierarchy, but surprisingly, the district administration of Kathua has placed these senior faculty members and College Principals (who are mostly professors) junior to the Assistant Executive Engineer and newly appointed Junior scale Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers.
The Deputy Commissioner of Kathua issued an order on 20 February 2021, assigning duties for conducting a written test for the post of Class-IV, from 27 February to 1st March 2021.
The officers assigned duties as Observers, Magistrates, Centre Superintendents and Invigilators have been asked to attend the training sessions which is scheduled to be held on 23rd of February in three batches in the GDC Women Kathua.
According to the assigned duties, newly appointed Block Development Officers (BDOs) many of which are actually the Junior KAS officers, are appointed as the observers which are ranked at highest in the hierarchy of assigned duties. Others such as Assistant Executive Engineer, District Soil Conservator Officer, Assistant Commissioner Food Supplies Kathua, Assistant Controller Drugs/Legal Metrology have been allotted the duties, while Tehsildar and Naib Tehsildar have been allotted the duties of Magistrates.
The College Principals, most of which are Professors and among the highest posts in hierarchy of administrative setup, have been allotted the duties of Centre Superintendent, which is at the third stage of the hierarchy of the duties. Other than that, Assistant Professors or Senior Assistant Professors who will soon be appointed as Associate Professors, have been positioned at the 4th stage of the hierarchy.
A senior college member said that it is known to everyone that a College Principal gets a salary lesser than only the Chief Secretary level officer. He called it an insult to those senior Officers by the bureaucrats, who have even placed Junior KAS officers above the Principals.
One Principal said that the administration is disrespecting the College Principals and faculty members by placing them below executive officers. He requested the Lieutenant Governor administration to consider the matter and issue instructions to the district administration.
