73 candidates have cleared every stage for Assistant Director posts. Three years since the advertisement. Results declared in October 2025. All formalities completed. Yet no appointment orders. No clear reason. No timeline. Merit alone is not enough—uncertainty and delay have become part of the process.
Sajad Bagow
The meritocracy to choose among a pool of candidates for a government job fails when it is not timely recognised. The administrative fairness alone is not enough for applicants who have long waited for a job, but it is the timely recognition of merit that is no less important than the time value of money. Therefore, the just and prompt acknowledgement of accomplishment or reward is essential to maintain motivation and ensure continued excellence. Against this backdrop, we, the candidates who are qualified for the post of Assistant Director in the Planning, Development and Monitoring Department (PDMD), Jammu & Kashmir, write this open letter to the Hon’ble Chief Minister, who is also the minister of PDMD, Jammu and Kashmir.
Last year, on 16th Oct, 2025, Jammu & Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) declared the final results for the post of Assistant Director (Economics & Statistics). It was the moment of joy without bounds for the selected candidates. This announcement marked a significant achievement for the selected candidates, highlighting the importance of hard work, consistency, discipline, and aspiration.
However, luck can’t be ruled out, which has fully favoured the candidates who made it to the final merit list. As it has now become a convention, the exam process from start to the selection list was highly competitive, transparent, and rigorous, reflecting quality and making people trust in public institutions and encouraging young aspirants to believe in meritocracy. The journey to the declaration of results was not happy at all; it was the most challenging one.
Almost three years have passed since the advertisement of these posts in February 2023. Yet, we left behind the emotional distress and psychological disturbance of the past three years with the happy outcome of the selection, and we began to see ourselves as Assistant Directors of PDMD JK. No selected candidate could have imagined that this process would take such a heavy toll on our mental well-being. After the results were declared, all selected candidates promptly completed the required formalities like medical examinations and verification processes, including Police and CID clearances.
Out of the 81 candidates recommended by JKPSC, 73 have successfully cleared every stage and are fully eligible for appointment. Despite completing all the mandatory procedures for appointment orders, which took several months, there is still a delay in issuing appointment orders. What makes this delay particularly disheartening is the absence of any clear reason or timeline. We have made several visits to the relevant authorities, such as the PDMD Civil Secretariat in Jammu, to inquire about the progress of the appointment process. Every time the officials we met fooled us by ensuring that appointments would be made “soon.” Unfortunately, these assurances have remained just that—assurances. The prolonged delay from the department’s end hasn’t only created uncertainty regarding appointments but has also overburdened us in many aspects. Many of the selected candidates have turned down other career opportunities in anticipation of joining this prestigious position.
This thing has raised the real human consequences in terms of financial constraints, emotional distress, and a growing sense of disillusionment. Further, we are now left with no other option than to speculate on the various things regarding our appointments. There are widespread concerns that internal administrative considerations, such as pending promotions within the department, may be contributing to the delay in issuing appointment orders. Although such considerations are not backed by verified statistics, the absence of an official communication inevitably fills the vacuum, and the lack of accountability and transparency has accelerated these apprehensions further.
Given the unnecessary delay in our appointment orders, such things can’t even be ruled out, and if such elements are indeed at play, it raises doubt about the administrative machinery, which is being assumed to give the least importance to fairness and merit. The irony died several deaths when across the whole country, there is a great agenda striving for efficiency, transparency, and accountability, but on the ground, realities hardly met anything intended in letter and spirit. Such a thing propagates a contradictory message and risks undermining the very ideals that competitive examinations like those conducted by JKPSC are meant to uphold.
We are all aware of the fact that there are limited opportunities in the private sector in the UT, and the educated youth mostly rely on government jobs. The Assistant Director posts (Economics and Statistics) usually come after a gap of several years, and delaying the appointments adds more frustration, in addition to waiting for years to get these posts advertised. Delaying our induction into the system is not just a loss for the candidates, but also for the administrative machinery that stands to benefit from their skills and energy.
We humbly request Hon’ble Chief Minister, being the head of the government and the minister in charge of the Planning Department, to look into this matter on priority, as we have suffered to the fullest of our capacity. This issue, though administrative in nature, carries broader implications for public trust and institutional credibility. The issuance of appointment orders for candidates who have already fulfilled all requirements should not be subject to indefinite delay.
A clear and transparent timeline must be communicated, and any bottlenecks in the process should be addressed with urgency. Governance, at its core, is all about responsiveness. It is about ensuring that systems work not just in principle, but in practice. When deserving candidates are made to wait endlessly despite completing every requirement, it sends a message that merit alone is not enough—that uncertainty and delay are part of the process. This is a message that must be corrected.
This open letter is not merely a plea for appointments; it is a call for administrative accountability. We remain hopeful that this concern will be addressed with the seriousness and urgency it deserves. A timely resolution will not only bring relief to the affected candidates but also reaffirm faith in the fairness and efficiency of the system.
The writer is a PhD in Economics
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