New recruitment policy

Rayaz Ahmed Malik
It is a good gesture and welcome step by the Government having formulated a policy to absorb maximum number of unemployed youth against various available vacancies in non-gazetted cadres as presently there are more than 5 lakh unemployed youth registered in Jammu and Kashmir. The policy named as New Recruitment Policy was devised in 2011 but was criticized on large scale by many opposition parties and social and student organizations because of provision of payment of fewer wages to employees. There was resentment among youth all over the state and were enraged by the announcement of this policy. Under this policy, the employee is regular from the day first he/she joins a department but he/she is entitled to get the wages less than 50 percent of the basic pay of a pay-grade for the first five years of his/her service. Thereafter he can get full salary as per pay grade of the post one holds.
The first and foremost point to be raised about this policy is that it should be made clear with regard to selection of candidates. Selection can be made in three steps viz;
* There can be an entrance test made mandatory for every post. Those who secure 50% marks or more can be shortlisted.
* Then weightage can be given to relevant qualification of those who pass the test.
* The Personal Assessment Test (PAT) cum viva for the post can be allocated only 5% marks. The merit then can be prepared by adding the percentage of marks obtained in entrance test by a candidate, his qualification weightage and percentage of marks for PAT cum viva. Then the number of selections can be made on the basis of cut mark as per available vacancies in a department.
Secondly, the OMR application forms for the advertised posts under this policy are available for Rupees 200/-each in various branches of J&K Bank in the state which is inappropriate and unjust for a youth who has to fill more than one form. Since the application form is a single leave printed double side and doesn’t incur much cost to Government it can be made available at reasonable rates for Rs. 30/- to Rs. 50/- only per form. The filling-up of forms can be made affordable for a common man, needy and deserved and should not be the legacy of rich only.
It is worthwhile to mention that due to a stay on its implementation by Kashmir Wing of J&K High Court, the policy got lingered on for about one year and could not be implemented. Recently, the stay was vacated by court and Government, without any delay gave nod to its implementation. The Government has also ordered all the recruiting agencies including SSRB, Police Recruitment Board, etc. to adhere strictly to the norms of this policy. To win the favour of and make this policy among youth, the Government, on the very first day of New Year i.e; January 1st, 2013, issued an advertisement notice carrying various posts in state, divisional and district cadres. There was also given a tabular format for salary payment in two slots i.e; for the first two and next three years respectively. It is pertinent to mention that the policy is implemented in the wake of burden of increased salaries of about 4.5 lakh employees after recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission in the state. So it was not easy for Government to provide jobs to youth at such huge salaries.
Although youth are much optimistic of getting jobs under this policy but they are also furious about the meager salary to be paid to them. The salary that is not even equal to the basic pay of a grade is insufficient for a youth to feed his family or run household in this sky touching prices age.
The market prices are soaring day by day and so the employee will not be able to maintain his living standard at par with his earlier counterparts. Thus, it is difficult for an employee getting wages less than Rs. 140/- per day or salary of Rs. 4,000/- per month under new policy to meet even his daily expenses when juxtaposed to an earlier employee of same grade getting salary of Rs. 20,000 – 25,000/- per month. It is very difficult for him to survive in such wretched conditions. He cannot manage his travel expenses incurred to reach his place of posting from his home and back, if posted out of his vicinity.
All these problems can create, in the mind of an employee, a sense of earning additional money by hook or crook to meet his expenses. His character can deteriorate and can lead him to the practice of corruption which the Government otherwise wants to ban or eradicate from the Government offices. Most of the employees will try to get huge sum of money for services provided to the needy and poor people and thus both the corruption by employees and injustice to people will go alongside. Both these factors can prove fatalistic in the development of state.
In order to curb corruption from the government offices and functionaries, the government can once again think to review and revise this policy by reducing the period of 5 years to 3 years for the privilege of full salary and other perks and raising the salary of employees to atleast equal to basic pay of a grade for a post for the initial 3 years.
Provisions can be made to post an employee within his vicinity not more than 5 kms in radius. This revision, with few exceptions, can help the employees not to get more involved in corrupt practices. Political parties, social and student organizations can come on front to give their suggestions to Government to revise this policy to reduce the period and enhance the wages to be paid to employees so as they can maintain their dignity, honour and living standard at par with earlier counterparts. These measures can help us to make our society a corruption free society.
(The author is computer Assistant Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University Rajouri )

Follow our WhatsApp channel