Information gap is inadvisable because the age we are living in is the age of information, connectivity and suspense. Here is a case of information gap in which about ten thousand women of the State have faced rejection of their application forms for employment against vacancies announced by the Government. It is a bizarre case of negligence or one can also suspect it as a case of subversion. The State Government has ordered that a woman belonging to a particular district is not eligible for apply for a post outside her district and division unless she is able to prove her residence of more than 15 years in the district from where she applies. Apparently the motive behind this discriminative order was to ensure that the vacancies are not grabbed by people living outside the district thus leaving the locals with no choice. Women folk of the State resented this discriminatory order calling it unjust and illogical. Consequently it was challenged in a court of law and Division Bench of State High Court in March 2012 directed the Government to consider the PIL as representation for according consideration. Accordingly, the Government in April this year brought an amendment in the 15-year residence condition. The amendment is called Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralization and Recruitment) Amendment Act, 2013.
In normal course of things the GAD was supposed to convey the new ruling to all quarters including the PSC and other recruiting agencies. That was not done or was only partially done and this resulted into recruiting agencies rejecting around 10,000 application forms. This scandal has come to light eight months after the event took place. It is surprising that such an important order that has far reaching social implications has been either ignored or subverted with the result that thousands of women who though were eligible for appointment against Government vacancies, have been denied the chance. This is unjust and the entire onus comes to the doorsteps of the recruiting authorities. A simple application in a court of law will upset the entire procedure under which these aspirant candidates were denied chance of appointment.
We hear lot of noise from Government and other social media circles that the state is providing many facilities and is also relaxing many rules to encourage women to become part of the nation building process.
Why should the society lose the talent that is available with the women candidates? It is rank discrimination against them and there is hardly any strong argument to support the order which imposes 15 year condition for a woman to be residing in a particular district. This is worst kind of parochial and regionalism and in a democracy, the struggle is against these debilitating situations besides the rest of them. Orders like these and actions that follow are contrary to all norms of humanism and human rights. The worst sufferers are the people living on the border who have been forced to migrate to safer places owing to incessant firing by the Pakistani Rangers. People of Backward Areas are also equally sufferers though they most deserve to be meted out humanitarian treatment. We hope that the Government will set right the matter without making the affected applicants suffer more.
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