Police officers in Jammu and Kashmir are angry. They allege they are not given parity with their civilian counterparts in salary and promotions. Some even have voiced their concerns on the social media, asking, “why not time bound promotion for the Kashmir Police Service (KPS) officers” after the government announced the decision.
The state government on Tuesday declared time-bound non-functional grades to Jammu Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers. The move will raise the salary of those officers, who have not been elevated to the higher posts for many reasons. The step will also provide relief to those officers who in spite of being at the higher posts have been taking salaries of the lower posts.
The decision was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister. The time-bound non-functional grades will address the issue of stagnation in one pay grade of the civilian officers.
Earlier promotions of officers were not taking place in various departments of the state due to the innumerable litigations over seniority issues and non-availability of vacancies.
“The KAS officers of my batch will get a higher salary with a raise after each time frame. I have been stuck at the same position for the last 16 years. We are asking them to give us what our civilian counterparts get,” a senior police officer said.
“We simply demand parity”, he added.
As the civilian counterparts of Jammu and Kashmir Police officers have a strong union, which regularly takes up their service issues with the government, Jammu and Kashmir Police officers under the police rules cannot form an association.
The recruitment to the KPS is made through the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) like the Kashmir Administrative Service. The PSC selects the direct recruits through the J&K Combined Services Competitive Examination. The first batch of KAS officers were recruited in 1972, the second in 1977 and the third in 1984. Since 1999, the exams have been held regularly. Police officers selected through this process have been demanding promotions, grades like their equals in civilian administration.
Last year, the government had accepted one of their demands to have separate cadre now called JKPS cadre. However, a section of officers say, its essence was killed as many other services like telecom, photography, police transport workshop, prosecution, ministerial and stenography were added to it.
“This is no way acceptable to direct state police officer as the other service officers included in the KPS cadre have not passed any competitive or departmental exam”, said a young KPS officer wishing anonymity.
Since 2011 about 220 young officers mostly in the age group of 25 years joined the police department through PSC. The officers say there is no career growth due to lack of career rules and regulations that would guide the career progress.
“The young officers who joined the Jammu and Kashmir Police in the recent years since 2011 after passing the prestigious examination will have to serve in their appointment grade pay of Rs 4800 for not less than 15 years before they could get pay grade of a selection grade DYSP not to talk of being promoted to the next rank of Superintendent of Police”, said an official.
The police officials say they have three major issues; time-bound grades like KAS to be extended to KPS officers, to exclude other services like prosecution from JKPS cadre and the fixing of seniority.
“The fixing of seniority is a long pending issue. It needs to be resolved at the earliest as this would pave way for the promotional benefits of these young officers”, they say.
The Director General of Police S.P Vaid says the government is not holding anything back. “The issue is because of seniority disputes among the police officers and they should first resolve it among themselves”, Vaid told Outlook.