Every year, young men and women from Arunachal Pradesh earn seats in prestigious national institutions to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering, with the dream of returning home to serve their state and communities. However, this dream is under threat due to powerful interests questioning their right to serve in the Water Resources Department (WRD) and Rural Works Department (RWD) of Arunachal Pradesh. A growing chorus of voices is pushing to exclude agricultural engineers from these departments, despite their proven service and technical competence.
The employment opportunities for civil engineers and agricultural engineers in Arunachal Pradesh’s government service are starkly different. Civil engineers can seek appointment in various departments, including PWD, PHE, UD, ULB, RD, WRD, RWD, and HPD, while agricultural engineers are only eligible for WRD, RWD, and HPD, and only at the AE and JE levels. If agricultural engineers are removed from these departments, their BTech degree becomes worthless in the context of Arunachal Pradesh’s government service.
The Rural Works Department was originally carved out of the Department of Agriculture, and its engineers should not be questioned for their credibility to serve in it. Agricultural engineers have been recruited in RWD and WRD for many years, designing projects, executing works, supervising construction, and serving in senior capacities without any scandal or systemic failure. Their track record speaks for itself, and there is no credible allegation against their technical competence.
Other states in India, including Rajasthan, Punjab, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, have recognized the technical equivalence and unique value of agricultural engineering graduates in water and rural infrastructure roles. In Meghalaya and Nagaland, agricultural engineers and civil engineers share recruitment seats in the Water Resources Department on a 50-50 basis. Arunachal Pradesh should reflect on these precedents and not go in the opposite direction.
The BTech curriculum in agricultural engineering includes subjects directly relevant to the work of WRD and RWD, such as soil and water conservation engineering, irrigation and drainage engineering, hydrology, surveying and levelling, structural analysis, fluid mechanics, engineering drawing, and rural infrastructure development. Agricultural engineers are not generalists masquerading as specialists; they are specialists in precisely the domains these departments demand.
The dreams of a generation of agricultural engineers are at stake, and their BTech degree becomes functionally worthless within the state of Arunachal Pradesh if they are scrapped from these departments. The state should honour the education, service, and dreams of its own engineers and not send a signal to young students to not pursue this discipline.
The agricultural engineers of Arunachal Pradesh have served with dedication, integrity, and technical competence, and they deserve a state that stands with them, not one that erases their contribution under pressure from vested interests. Service to the soil is service to the state, and agricultural engineers are not outsiders in Arunachal Pradesh’s development – they are its foundation.
