PSC to conduct preliminary exams for Combined Services in far flung areas

* Begins process for filling up 1652 Asst Profs posts
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 30: As a part of its initiative to fast-track recruitments, Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) has begun the process for filling up over 1600 posts of Assistant Professors in the Higher Education Department. The Commission has already notified the schedule of interview for these posts beginning January 7, 2016.
According to Latief-u-Zaman Deva, Chairman JKPSC, 8500 candidates have applied against 1652 posts of Assistant Professors in various disciplines.
He said that out of 2852 posts pending recruitment as on July 28, 2015, after the Commission was made fully functional by the present Government, 312 recruitments have been made till date, with the recruitment process for other posts having already been set into motion.
He said the Commission has, during this period, also conducted competitive examinations for filling up the posts of Assistant Director (Statistics) besides conducting KCS (Judicial)-2014 and Combined Competitive (Prelim) Examination.
The Commission also conducted screening tests for short-listing of candidates for Assistant Engineer (Civil), Superintendent ITI, Lecturer Physical Education and Range Officer (Soil) with 4328 candidates appearing in the said tests.
The Commission has also convened 22 Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings since 28th July 2015 and cleared 219 officers for promotion/regularization. A roster for convening DPC meetings has been notified to fast-track the process of regularization/ promotion of officers.
The Commission has also accorded concurrence to the proposal for amendment in the recruitment rules submitted by GAD for Combined Services, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department and Transport Department.
The Commission has taken various initiatives to streamline the process of recruitments. Some of these initiatives include shifting to Online Application Forms (OLAF), One-Time Registration (OTR), publication of official key before the declaration of result, uploading the information on the website, opening of examination centres in far flung areas, video recording the interviews and installation of CCTV cameras.
Under OTR a candidate will be provided with the facility of registering himself with PSC after passing graduate level examination. As and when a post commensurate with the candidate’s qualification is referred to the Commission, a system generated SMS and an e-mail will be sent automatically to the candidate registered with the Commission intimating him/her that he/she may like to apply for the referred to post. The candidate once registered with the Commission as the name suggests would not be required to register again and again. This system will also provide up-to-date data about unemployed youth in the State and other eligibility/availability for various categories of posts.
Under the initiative of publication of official key before the declaration of result, a major step towards transparency in the functioning of the Commission, official key is being published immediately after the conduct of preliminary examination/ screening test and before the declaration of the results.
The Commission has also started uploading the information on the official website to reduce the burden of providing information through RTI Act wherever possible including the expenditure incurred from out of the Examination Revolving Fund.
The Commission has decided to conduct preliminary examinations for Combined Services in the far flung areas like Doda, Kargil, Leh, Anantnag, Baramulla and Rajouri to enable the poor students who because of their financial constraints do not appear in the competitive examinations as the same are at present held in the centres located in the Jammu and Srinagar cities only.
CCTV Cameras have been installed in the Examination Halls of the Commission both at Jammu and Srinagar to monitor the activities of the examinees and also the supervisory staff to prevent and eliminate use of unfair means. Besides, the cameras have also been installed in the Secrecy Section and other sections of the Commission.