Aurangabad: Agriculture (grade-B) officers from Aurangabad, Jalna and Beed districts staged a demonstration in front of the office of the divisional joint director of Agriculture in the city on Wednesday for their different demands including promotion.
The agitators who were also holding placards said tehsil agriculture officers from the three districts have not been given a promotion for the past 20 to 25 years.
Despite this, Maharashtra Public Service Commission published an advertisement to fill the posts of grade-A officers.
They said the government fills 75 per cent vacant posts of grade-A officers through promotion while 25 per cent through direct recruitment. Treasurer of the State unit of Agriculture Officers union Deepak Gavli said out of 800 posts of their cadres 200 of them are vacant.
He said the officers take the State and Central Government schemes and guide farmers about crops.
“It seems that the Government is not serious about our demand. So, we have launched series of agitations to draw Government’s attention towards the demands,” he added.
Box
600 officers exit WhatsApp group
All the 600 agriculture officers of the State quit from WhatsApp groups together since the Government did not pay attention to their demands.“Now, the department will need to call the officers or send a letter to communicate the official message,” he said.