Abolition of J&K cadre of civil services, withdrawal of age relaxation
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 7: Cutting across party lines, several local political and student leaders today condemned Central Government for its decision of abolishing Jammu and Kashmir cadre of civil services and withdrawing 5 year age relaxation to the youth of J&K and demanded to roll back the decisions immediately.
Terming the decision of abolition of J&K cadre of civil services as unwarranted and arbitrary, former Finance Minister Syed Altaf Bukhari on Friday demanded that the decision be rolled back. Bukhari also expressed strong reservations on doing away with the five year age relaxation granted to Jammu and Kashmir youth in the civil services examinations.
The former Finance Minister said the decisions are confusing and do not make sense as the Centre had assured that there will be no fiddling with the cadre when statehood was revoked in August last year. “The decision to abolish the J&K cadre will be a strong factor for demotivation of J&K youth who aspire to join the prestigious civil services in the country,” he said, adding, the merger of the cadre into the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh Goa and Mizoram Union Territories) cadre is a provision contained in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.
Expressing surprise and anguish on the Central Government’s decision abolishing the Jammu and Kashmir cadre of Civil Services and also withdrawing age relaxation to youth of J&K UT, former Minister and senior Congress leader termed the decisions as unwarranted and arbitrary.
Dr Sharma said that the five-year age relaxation was granted by the Centre to J&K civil service aspirants because of topography, inclement climatic conditions and the hostile security scenario in the J&K and doing away with this advantage has not only brought doubt among them but has also disillusioned thousands of J&K students who have gone outside the state for coaching, thereby wasting their precious time and resources.
He criticized BJP and its local leadership once again for betrayal with the youth of J&K and keeping mum on the issue. The former Minister requested the Government to revoke these decisions in the interest of the youth of J&K.
Criticizing the decision of withdrawing 5 years age relaxation to the youth of J&K in UPSC, former MLA and NPP president Balwant Singh Mankotia said that Government has played with the careers of millions of educated youngsters by taking this decision.
Mankotia said that on one side, the Government itself admitted that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir cannot compete with the youth of other states of the country where as on the other hand Government betrayed the educated youth of J&K by withdrawing 5 year age relaxation. He also criticized the Government’s decision to reduce the ratio of KAS/KPS and IAS/IPS to 33/66 from 50/50. He said that before the formation of UT, local youth could get 50% in UPSC which is now reduced to 33% only.
Condemning the Central Government’s decision of scrapping the age relaxation clause and abolition of J&K Civil Service Cadre, Vikas Badhoria (general secretary, NSUI J&K) said that both Centre and UT Government is not serious about J&K youth. They don’t have any blue print regarding employment for youth and by taking such decision they are dashing hopes of youth.
Anirudh Raina (president, NSUI Jammu University) said that the Government has betrayed the youth of J&K with these decisions. He said that the Government should rethink on these anti-youth policies otherwise NSUI along with the youth and students will have to resort to the path of agitation.
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