JAMMU: The Constitution of India enshrines the principle of fairness and equality in public employment as it empowers every citizen to secure employment on the basis of merit and fair play only. The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched a slew of measures to uphold the sanctity of this sacred tenet of our constitution.
In keeping with the spirit of providing level playing field to job aspirants as guaranteed in the Constitution, the Jammu and Kashmir government has embarked on a journey of ensuring transparency and accountability in appointment of candidates to various public posts. The government has made necessary amendments to the recruiting process to ensure that merit and intelligence remains the sole criteria for appointment of candidates for government jobs.
Apart from referring record number of posts to the premier recruiting agencies like JKPSC and JKSSB, the prime focus has been on ensuring transparent selections for all the referred vacancies. The recent appointment of nearly 10,000 candidates in first phase of the biggest ever recruitment campaign including around 8000 Class-IV posts by JKSSB is a prime example signifying the above reforms being carried out by the UT government.
Official figures suggested that 11,000 appointments were made in the past 18 months in J&K. Around, 20,323 additional posts were referred to SSB the recruitment for which is at different stages of completion. Many domicile certificate holders who could not apply earlier in the recruitment process in J&K will be eligible for these posts.
As part of the second phase of the recruitment campaign in Jammu and Kashmir, the government has identified 12379 posts that are being referred to recruitment agencies, a 38-page Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) report has revealed. The government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is in the process of referring these vacancies to the recruitment agencies, it said.
There are vacancies in most departments in J&K. The government is in the process of identifying all such vacancies for referral to the recruiting agencies and has recently framed a high level committee under the chairmanship of Secretary ARI & Trainings to ensure their recruitment is in consonance with updated recruitment rules. Moreover, in order to clear the stagnation and bring uniformity in the recruitment process government cancelled the long pending advertisement notifications sent to JKPSC and JKSSB so that a new process is initiated on fast track basis as per updated rules and requirements.
Further, the government has also made JKSSB the sole recruiting body for all the non-gazetted and class-IV posts for government jobs including that for Police, Prisons and Fire & Emergency Services departments. This step is going to bring transparency, uniformity and acceleration in recruitment process besides ensuring prevalence of merit in the process.
In this backdrop, ‘Yogyata Se Rozgaar’ celebrates the spirit of merit in public employment. To mark the successful conduct of examination for these posts and the appointment based on merit, Yogyata Se Rozgaar was celebrated at panchayat level and block level across the UT of J&K. In these events, newly recruited Class-IV employees were felicitated with garlands and souvenirs in presence of their family members and local residents. Such events exhorted these new recruits to devote themselves in the service of the masses. The optimistic spirit of the youth of J&K has been reinforced by such events.
Yogyata Se Rozgaar is not just a one-time event to felicitate new entrants to public service but it epitomizes that by ensuring accountability in appointment to public posts, the UT of J&K will keep intact the constitutional dictum of equality in matters of public employment.
