Aspirants demand probe into recruitment of registrars at GMC Srinagar, smell foul

Suhail Bhat

Srinagar, July 31: The Registrar job aspirants at Government Medical College (GMC) Srinagar have demanded a probe into the frequent extensions of the application deadline in order to prevent irregularities in the recruitment process.
The aspirants alleged that they smell a rat in the entire process since not only has the application deadline been postponed twice since the positions were invited on May 19 this year, but the number of openings was not disclosed in the advertisement.
“Usually, extensions are granted for a period of 10 to 15 days, but in this case, two extensions were granted for a total of nearly one month each,” an aspirant, said.
He said that the deadline for submission was 30-06-2022, but this was unusually extended to 31-07-2022 and then to 31-08-2022, raising suspicions that the administration wanted to induct blue-eyed candidates who did not fit the requirements.
“They are certainly waiting for some candidates who might not meet the eligibility criteria or have some other issues. If that is so, why are they giving false hope to the other candidates who have applied for the posts?” another candidate alleged.
The Government Medical College Srinagar on 19th May 2022 vide Advertisement no.192 of 2022 had invited applications for the posts of Registrar/Demonstrator on a tenure basis in various disciplines.
The candidates said that the administration has cited inadequate response as the justification for these repeated extensions without specifying the minimum number of applications required for the positions or the number of openings available.
“This justification is absurd because there is no rule defining the required minimum number of candidates for the positions. How can they claim there has been a poor response to an unknown number of opportunities when they have not even specified the number of posts that are open? Everything seems to be fishy here,” another aspirant said, adding that a single job posting attracts thousands of applications, so blaming poor response is a lame excuse given the high rate of unemployment in J&K.
The candidates alleged that GMC Srinagar is delaying recruiting until its own students have successfully completed their Master’s degrees. “If this is the case, they should categorically mention it in the advertisement that the posts are reserved for their students to prevent others from wasting time and energy,” aspirants said.
The candidates urged the LG, Manoj Sinha, to launch an investigation into the process and rescue the futures of doctors while referring to it as “smart corruption”.
The Principal of GMC Srinagar, Dr Samia Rashid, did not answer this reporter’s repeated calls and text messages.