Sir,
It is sad to watch young boys and girls urging the gazetted officers to attest the photostate copies of their documents such as marksheets of various exams,birth certificates, Permanent resident certificates etc.which are required to be attached with the application forms for various posts advertised by the Central Departments or State Recruitment Agencies such as PSC & SSRB. Last year,the Union Government announced a landmark decision that candidates would no longer be required to get the photocopies of their documents/affidavits attested by the gazetted officers.Instead they could self attest their documents/ affidavits at the time of submission of their application forms for various admissions, competitive exams or posts advertised by different Departments from time to time.Self attestation in lieu of attestation by gazetted officer came as a big relief to the students and those who had to apply for various exams.But it is strange that this landmark decision has not implemented in our state with the result that the poor candidates, have to face untold hardships to get their documents attested.
The main problem arises when the gazetted officers are requested to issue them the character certificates .The gazetted officers generally refuse to issue them the certificate on the pretext that the said candidate is not known to them and as such character certificate cannot be issued in his favour especially when it is a militancy affected state.It is ,therefore, better to do away with the practice of insisting on photocopies attested bt the gazetted officers and allow the candidates to self attest their photicopies themselves which can be verified with the original documents of the candidate at the time of interview and if found tempered,appropriate legal action can be initiated against them under the relevent provision of law.The Character Certificate issued by the competent officers such as Tehsildars on the recommendation of the SHO concerned must be held valid for a fixed period of one or two years as the antecedents of the selected candidate are got verified by the concerned department after his appointment and he/ she is paid only after his antecedents are found satisfactory by the concerned departments.Thus, the government should realise the hardships faced by the candidates and common man and issue an order to the concerned departments/ agencies to accept their application forms with their documents self certified to ensure a hassle free submission of the forms for the advertised post/ exam.
Yours etc….
Ankita Sharma,
Udhampur
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