Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 11: In a major decision aimed at ensuring utmost transparency in the recruitments, the State Government today made it mandatory for the Services Selection Board to conduct written test for all the non-gazetted posts to be referred to it by various departments. With this decision, more than 30,000 posts of different categories will be filled through new initiative.
The detailed notifications in this regard have been issued by the Commissioner/ Secretary to Government, General Administration Department, Gazzanfer Hussain elaborating the amendments to be made in the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Rules, 2010.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 124 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, the Government directs that in all Gazetted and Subordinate Services Recruitment Rules governing different services/posts under the Government except where written test has already been provided, necessary proviso shall be inserted at appropriate place in the Rules relating to qualification and method of recruitment”, reads the SRO No.438 issued by the General Administration Department.
It has specifically been mentioned in the SRO that the selection agency shall conduct a written test for all advertized posts and the marks/points obtained by the participating candidates shall be apportioned proportionately against the marks earmarked for written test in the selection criteria.
“On the basis of merit obtained by the candidates in the written examination, the selection agency shall conduct an oral test which may be restricted to five times the number of vacancies advertized. The selection agency shall, thereafter, prepare a selection list based on the merit obtained by the candidates in the written and oral test”, the SRO further reads.
Earlier, as per Rule 14 of J&K Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Rules, 2010, the Services Selection Board had the discretion for restricting the number of applicants for oral and/ or written test to at least five times the number of vacancies on the basis of academic merit in the qualifying examination converted into points on pro-rata basis out of the total points allocated for the basic eligibility/qualification.
But with the amendments in this Rule, the Services Selection Board shall conduct written test for all the posts advertized in terms of Rule 13. Under Rule 13, all the non-gazetted posts of State, Divisional and District Cadres are referred to the Services Selection Board for selection. These posts include those of Accounts Assistants, Teachers, Patwaris, Supervisors, Junior Engineers, Stenographers, Draftsmen and Drivers.
Now, the Board shall, based on the merit obtained by the candidates in written test prepare a merit list of candidates and on the basis of merit obtained by candidates in the written test conduct an oral test which may be restricted to five times the number of posts/vacancies advertized.
Moreover, the Board shall prepare a select list equal to the number of posts/vacancies for which requisition was made by the requisitioning authority on the basis of aggregate merit obtained by candidates in the written test and the oral test conducted in terms of Clauses (a) and (b).
Likewise, by carrying out further amendments in the J&K Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Rules, 2010, the Government has allowed the Board to draw up a waiting list of 33.33% (1/3rd) of the total number of posts advertized subject to a minimum of one candidate as against provision of 25% in the existing Rules.
The Board shall forward the waiting list to the requisitioning authority for consideration against drop-out vacancies. This list shall remain in force for a period of one year from the date the original select list is sent to the requisitioning authority.
It is pertinent to mention here that announcement with regard to written test for non-gazetted posts in order to ensure transparency and root out chances of corruption in the interviews was made by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his Independence Day address this year.
Thereafter, the Department of Personnel and Training sent repeated communications to Jammu and Kashmir for adherence to the Prime Minister’s announcement. But all these communiqués fell on deaf ears and the same was exclusively highlighted by EXCELSIOR in its edition dated October 8, 2015.
Finally, the State Government has adhered to the announcement of the Prime Minister and communications of DoPT by passing necessary instructions to the Services Selection Board.
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