Colleges in Jammu and Kashmir are witnessing another phase of staff transfers. In last about a week, two to three transfer lists have surfaced, and the word is more are in offing.

One casual glance shall be enough to note that the assistant and associate professors on these lists are no lesser mortals; they are other-eyed (Blue-eyed sounds offensive.) Most of these academics have returned, prematurely, to their home districts where they had stayed long years before their transfers. How? The answer is hard to ascertain and rather easy to guess.

Almost all of them were transferred in 2023, when the government had brought in Annual Transfer Drive or ATD for the first and, eventually, the last time. The ATD, meant to be an annual exercise, required the academics to submit their details through an online portal. Those having spent over three years in one zone (a district or a cluster of districts) would be transferred to another zone. Nothing else was required to be done. No special representations, no personal meetings, no boot licking. Pretty fair!

Hand the data thus generated over to AI and the academics would be transferred objectively, year after year, without any bias or nepotism or injustice. This was the only hope for the lesser mortals who do........

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