Srinagar: The All India Jammu and Kashmir Bank Officers’ Organisation (AIJKBOO), based in Jammu, has alleged flouting of norms in the ongoing promotion process held within the Jammu and Kashmir Bank (J&K Bank) and has sought transparency in the career progression process of its officers.
In the ongoing career progression process within the bank, results of two of the officers’ cadres have been declared thus far, wherein Scale-4 officers have been promoted to Scale-5 rank and Scale-1 officers have been promoted to Scale-2.
The AIJKBOO, not happy with the selection process, has written a letter to the Managing Director of the Bank, and the copy of the letter has been sent to the Lieutenant Governor of J&K, The Financial Secretary, and the National General Secretary of the National Organisation of Banking Officers.
“The lack of transparency in the entire process can be understood by the fact that neither the selected candidates know what basis they have been selected on, nor the rejected ones have any idea why they have been rejected,” the letter, of which Kashmir Reader has a copy, reads.
The letter insists that the “opaque” process of career profession criteria must be made known to the employees of the bank. “As a responsible union of officers, we have been time and again seeking the disclosure of this process to all stakeholders, but nothing has been done thus far,” the letter reads.
The final score or performance of either the selected or the rejected candidates was not made public, which could have been instrumental for the rejected candidates to make amends and for the selected ones to grow further and do well – the letter reads.
“The circulars regarding the process never defined the number of posts for which the process was initiated, rules for deciding results, weightage for different components of the process like the Annual Progress Report (APR), or the interview,” the letter further alleges.
The AIJKBOO has alleged that all this opaqueness within the process has led to the rejection of cluster heads, heading more than 25 to 30 branches; rejection of sectional heads in different Zonal offices; rejection of more than 15 top-performing branch heads from one zone in Rajouri, and many other deserving candidates.
“Although there is a lack of transparency many believe that APRs were the sole deciding factors, this time around, which has been unprecedented in the history of the bank,” the letter reads.
Insiders in the bank fear that if ARPs are considered to be the sole criteria for a career progression, the deserving candidates will be forced to appease their immediate bosses, for better reports.
The AIJKBOO has now sought immediate intervention of the Bank’s MD, LG Manoj Sinha, and other officials mentioned in the letter.

Reader correspondent