GAD official issues circular in attempt to solve problem

SRINAGAR: Recruitment agencies engaged by the government in Jammu and Kashmir continue to fail to recruit on a timely basis, and now the government is getting exasperated with their inefficiency.

In a circular issued by the Commissioner Secretary, General Administration Department, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi a few days ago, he has said that various recruiting agencies don’t forward the waiting list along with the selection list, which is becoming the cause of delay in the hiring process.

He also said that enormous time was being consumed by the recruiting agencies to decide on the withheld recommendations, which often denies the candidates figuring in the waiting list opportunity to be being considered for appointment against such candidature.

“Timely conclusion of the withheld recommendations assumes more significance in the light of the provisions contained in the SRO 60 dated February 2, 2018 by virtue of which such cases remain alive perpetually unless decided in a time-bound manner,” he suggested.

He has also asked for finishing the process within 21 days.

In December last year, the government had asked Administrative heads and Heads of Departments to prescribe the validity of select list/wait list issued by the recruiting agencies, and ensure timely processing of the select/wait list within the validity period.

It was said that relaxation in the Rules had to be done very judiciously and under extremely exceptional circumstances so as to withstand the scrutiny of law.

In this process of delay, aspirants waste their prime of youth in places like Kashmir where opportunities are scarce and government jobs serve as the mainstay for employment. Recently in the just concluded Parliament session, it was informed that 16,073 gazetted and non-gazetted posts were vacant in Jammu and Kashmir.

The example of recruitments of Assistant Information Officers, for which the state service selection board (SSB) is responsible, tells us of how careers are ruined. Fifteen years after issuing notice for the recruitment, the recruiting agency called the posts null and void, despite making candidates sit in the exams just a few months ago. It had issued three separate notifications in 2006, 2008 and 2010, inviting applications for the post of assistant information officer, grade-II.

Accordingly, examinations were conducted in 2011 and a provisional selection list was issued in January 2012. However, the case came under legal scrutiny after aggrieved candidates challenged the selection list over a change in eligibility criteria by the SSB. Subsequently, the selection list of 29 information officers was quashed by the J&K high court in the same year, which held that a prejudice had been caused to the petitioners due to the change in criteria in the middle of the selection process, and in the methodology on the date of the aptitude test and interview.

The verdict was upheld by a division bench of the high court in 2013, and subsequently by the Supreme Court in 2017.

Junaid Nabi Bazaz