Dear Editor,
I write to convey through your medium that we the Rehbar-e-Khel teachers of the Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory (JKUT) were appointed in 2019 subsequent to one of the significant procedural interviews. To affirm our credentials almost all of us have majored in academia as PG holders, M.Phil and PhD. Sir, we have been working in the education department at the paltry remuneration of Rs 3,000 per month. In the current struggling times, we intend to live up to our own highest endeavours to make ourselves the idealistic torch-bearers of truth in the education department but our miseries have finally taken their toll on our mental as well as emotional well-being. Having such a meagre income in our hands, it has become enormously difficult to make our both ends meet. We have time and again approached higher authorities to pay heed to our agonies and do away with such a draconian policy or at least raise our wages (recognized as a fundamental right by various pronouncements of the constitutional right of equal pay) but to our dismay, the despair goes unheard and appears jocular vis a vis chucklesome to authoritative lot making us disparage and critical of their equivocal mannerism. Despite a high-level committee constituted by the government to consider our demands, the committee hasn’t gone beyond their usual comforts and conveniences.
It may not be out of place to mention that we are doing all kinds of duties which include examination duty, election duty, Back to Village and Covid duty, in addition to our normal duties. Sir, we are performing all our duties with zeal and enthusiasm, which has been appreciated at all levels. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the period of all Rehbar schemes was fixed for 5 years. However, as perplexing and confounding as it may seem, the period of the Rehbar e Khel scheme was fixed for 7 years. Our demand is to minimize our probation period equivalent to Rehbar e Taleem, Rehbar Zairat and Rehbar e Junglat employees thus making a binding arbitration avoidable.
Furthermore, I would like to take the opportunity to mention that on the 29th of May 2022, REK teachers delegation Dheeraj Salaria, Mudasir Muzzafer, Narinder Chib and Raja Shafique Khan met your highness where your good self ensured that all our demands shall be fulfilled after a quick probe into the matter in order to end the impasse, but to our disbelief, even after completing seven months we came to know that GAD is working on the early memo which unfortunately led us to an inevitable sit-in protest against this injustice, for the last many weeks. We are committed to continuing this protest until justice rolls down like water. It is concerning that nation builder are on roads demanding their constitutional rights while the government is watching us like a mute spectator.
Hence, I appeal to your excellency to open the dialogue window and initiate the already promised regularisation process.
In view of the facts mentioned above, we humbly request you kindly acknowledge our demands sympathetically and resolve our problem expeditiously, by decreasing the probation period from 7 years to 5 years, increasing salary to the extent of basic pay for the post and also making a policy for immediate regularisation of Rehbar-e-Khel teachers so that our worries and anxieties are set at rest.
With profound regards,
Rehbar-e-Khel teacher and Ph.D. scholar. Feedback at [email protected]

Syed Aijaz Ul Haq