Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday eased the procedure for seeking compensation by the farmers and fruit growers for their crop-damage due to natural calamities, by making certain changes in the norms of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF).
"The cabinet meeting that was chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today decided to ease the procedure of seeking compensation by the farmers and fruit growers whose crop gets damage due to natural calamities. Now a farmer can seek compensation if his crop suffers a damage of 33 per cent, earlier it was 50 per cent," Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar told reporters here.
He said that following the recent unprecedented rainfall across the state, farmers and fruits-growers have suffered huge losses and the government would soon conduct a survey and would initiate the process of giving compensation to them.
"The government has also revised the rate of compensation and now the farmers and fruit growers will get increased compensation for the crop-loss," he said.
Akhtar said that the government has also decided to make certain changes in the state recruitment policy and has empowered the deputy commissioners in every district to employ qualified applicants on various positions.
"The government has empowered the deputy commissioners in every district to recruit qualified and eligible applicants in the district, the only consideration would be merit and nothing else," he said.
He said the current openings which are lying with the Public Service Commission of the state and the Service Selection Board would be filled by the two agencies, however, the deputy commissioners have been given additional 11,000 vacancies that they will fill.
"The vacancies which were earlier referred to PSC and SSB would be filled by these two agencies, however, the government found out that there were additional 11,000 vacancies that remained vacant, all those 11,000 vacancies would be filled by the deputy commissioners of the respective districts," Akhtar said.
He said the appointments made by the deputy commissioners would be on contractual basis for a period of seven years.
"After seven years, based on the performance of the employee, he would be given a permanent position," he said.
He said the step was taken so as to contain the emergence of unemployment in the state.
Akhtar said the government has also decided to promote 171 Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) officers of the 1999 batch whose promotions were stalled due to various reasons.
He said the government was also working on a comprehensive transfer policy in the education sector as it was facing some initial hiccups, "but we will make sure that the same comes out in next few weeks", he said.
