The curious case of jobs and scams in J&K!

Kr. Swarn Kishore Singh
Imagine a young man tops an examination of some governmental recruitment process, subsequently he is getting honoured by some local politicians, social organisations. He even attained some eventual and short lived fame on social media but after few days it comes to fore that the whole process of recruitment was rigged and the topper is nothing but a rogue. Who is the loser here ? The rogue candidate or the dead duck government ?
India houses almost one out of every five youth of the world and has the largest workforce. To ensure such an immense workforce is put to job, the system has to generate employment opportunities for its young people which should be viable too. Also it is more important for the system that it will have to consider the aspirations and ambitions of this generation from economic, social, technological, and ecological perspectives.
It is not logically tenable for any Government of the day to provide jobs in public sector to every educated youth. In fact the youth doesn’t even expect the government to provide every one of them a job in public sector but it is very justifiable expectation of every citizen to expect transparency in public employment recruitment process. Public employment recruitment process and the concerned governmental agencies are supposed to act as a benchmark for private entities for fairness and transparency. Irony !
Every job aspirant has a story of his own and any delay in culmination of a recruitment process shatters numerous dreams and plans. And those plans do not include investing in luxuries, it is all about fulfilling the basic necessities only. I have seen some helpless youth who have post-graduated in some good trades struggling for class-IV jobs. I have seen them fighting for jobs which are way beneath their calibre and talents but this government showed its most cruel face when they said since they are more qualified; they won’t be engaged as Class-IV employees. Only ostensible inference which can be drawn from this fiasco is that, now onwards there is no job for a youth who is well qualified and government engages brainless machines only. Almost 3 years have passed but the issue of class-IV selection process still lives and this government is also not willing to ensure this whole debacle doesn’t buy them more embarrassment.
The written examination of Jammu & Kashmir Police Sub-Inspector was conducted with all pomp and show only until it came to light that some major discrepancies have taken place, the whole examination was rigged, subsequently the government shamelessly scrapped the complete recruitment process and ordered investigations by Central Bureau of Investigation. Leaking of question paper; it can’t be a job of some naive youngsters, it is just a well planned conspiracy which can only be effectuated with the help of some powerful insiders; but as usual the Government won’t be interested in finding them. The same fate met the recruitment process of Finance Accounts Assistant and and Junior Engineer.
Go to any Government office, majority of posts are lying vacant but the Government is carrying on with adhocism. In last couple of years, just a few young man have got jobs in public sector in union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, shameful, isn’t it? Why should this not be inferred that present establishment is not capable of conducting fair and transparent recruitments. After scrapping of any notification, no imminent chances of kick starting fresh recruitment over again in near future are visible. Why? Is it because government only want to appear like initiating recruitment process but does not want to recruit any one?
The youth of our union territory isn’t just suffering because of delays in recruitment process but massive scandals by the bureaucrats in recruitment process contribute more to the agony. Every notification of recruitment meets a scam and till when the government can escape the accountability. Such random and arbitrary quashing of recruitment notifications amounts to punishing the youth of our union territory across the board. This has massively dented the image and trustworthiness of the governmental recruitment agencies. Something very significant needs to be done to restore the faith of youth and job aspirants and that should specifically include penalising of officials found to be involved in such mis-adventurism, no matter how high and mighty they are. After all they have put the reputation of the government at stake and also the life and jobs of youth. And in the event of status-quo, Ceasar’s wife can’t be above suspicion.
Describing the youth Kumar Vishwas has very popularly said:
“Jo dharti se ambar jode, uska naam jawaani hai,
Jo sheshe se pathar tode, uska naam jawaani hai;
Qatra qatra sagar tak to jaati hai har umar magar,
Behta darya wapis mode uska naam jawaani hai”.
Last time when few youth had reached Tawi bridge, the establishment was forced to hide behind the provisions of CrPC (restrictions imposed by District Magistrate, Jammu under section 144 CrPC). And recently when some youth were protesting very peacefully they were met with very brutal lathicharge; inhumane and utterly obscene! When the Government was supposed to atleast come clear over the issue and oust the shady Mumbai based company hired for conducting examinations; surprisingly the Government seems to come out all guns blazing to defend the blacklisted company. It is time for Lieutenant Governor to rise upto the occasion; hear the youth, lambast the red tape and conduct fair and transparent recruitments in the earliest as the resolve of the youth of Jammu & Kashmir is gaining strength with every passing day, a specimen of which is visible on social media too. Do it much before it becomes a political issue as the vultures have already started making rounds!
(The author is an advocate and a political commentator)