Jammu, 24 August: Recruitment for only 75 Naib Tehsildar posts has been converted into an air for the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB), which according to the information received through the Right of Information (RTI) Query, has collected more than Rs 6.43 crore from the candidates in the application fee.
RTI activist Raman Kumar Sharma said that the price of each form was Rs 600 for general and Rs 500 for reserved category, with collected funds, more than one lakh candidates had applied for posts, but have postponed the recruitment process last month.
“The sheer scale of reaction – more than one lakh candidates who die for a small 75 posts – speaks of deep unemployment crisis. It reflects the frustration of educated youth, who, despite the degree and ability, is left with some opportunities,” Sharma, who filed an RTI application, stated by PTI.
JKSSB said in Query’s response that on June 9, an amount of Rs 6,43,28,400 was collected from candidates for 75 posts of NAB Tehsildar in Revenue Department.
Sharma filed an RTI application on 21 July, when JKSSB postponed the recruitment until the next notice after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Jammu, until the ‘Urdu-Caval’ rule was stopped for recruitment.
The worker had sought details about the job notification of the job and the total number of applications, category-wise received in response to the money collected from them.
Public Information Officer, JKSSB, in his reply on August 2, refused to share information about the number of applications before the culmination of the selection process, but shared the details about the total fees collected.
“For thousands of candidates, several from the financially stressful background, postponing the recruitment process is not only a loss of hope, but also the loss of money earned by hard work, as there is no return policy for the deposit application fee,” Sharma said.
Shortly after the advertisement, the recruitment fled into a dispute over the compulsory Urdu section, the BJP led the protests, demanded the cancellation of a “discriminatory order” in the Jammu region – a party stronghold where it won 29 assembly seats last year.
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah defended only Urdu section and said that no one had any intention to stop appearing in the examination.
“Even before independence, our revenue records were in Urdu. How will a staff member work in the revenue department if he does not know Urdu?” Abdullah had said earlier.
He said that in the past, officials of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service and Indian Administrative Service were not proficient in Urdu, given time to learn the basics.
The leader of the National Conference said, “I don’t think the employee members of the revenue department who do not know that Urdu could be skilled for jobs,” and advocated for policy that people gave time to learn language after appointment.
On 14 July, a two -member cat bench banned the provisions of the 2009 Jammu and Kashmir Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, which studies Urdu with knowledge of Urdu as a minimum qualification for the post of Naib Tehsildar.
Reacting to the CAT order, former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said, “It is deeply unfortunate that our judiciary seems to be influenced by divisive politics.”
The Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party said, “A recognized official language for decades, now Urdu, is now wrongly communally communal. Our revenue records and administrative work continue to be maintained in Urdu, and it is only logical that the applicants have basic efficiency in the applicant language for the post of Naib Tehsildar. This requirement is the need. (Agencies)