Dr A C Bhagat
J & K Service Selection Board vide advertisement number 05 of 2025 dated 09-06-2025 has notified 75 posts of Naib Tehsildar for direct recruitment for which working knowledge of Urdu is mandatory. This notification has created a lot of hue and cry among thousands of aspirants particularly those hailing from Jammu province. Day in and day out, there are protests on this issue, as most of the aspirants of Jammu province have no knowledge of Urdu as in most of the educational institutions across Jammu province and that too particularly in plain areas,Urdu is not taught. In the hilly areas of Jammu province too studying Urdu has lessened to 10% as compared to the period as it used to be before 40 years or before.The reason being privatization of education consequent upon mushroom growth of private schools. There are very few private schools where Urdu is taught and learnt. With the passage of time people became more inclined to private schools in view of the better results and the standard of quality education in Government schools declined gradually and a time came when Government department of education virtually failed and it started winding up Govt. schools and at present such number of govt schools closed by the J&K Govt is +4300. Not to speak of Urdu the entire Govt run educational system has almost collapsed. So, where is the question of teaching or learning Urdu?
Both in print media and social media, the issue (Urdu for Naib Tehsildar Post) has become a burning issue for the thousands of aspirants of the Jammu region. Many learned personalities have opined their views on the subject in print media andrecently two write ups on the matter,which I came across, appeared in D E June 24 / 25, 2025 with elaborate deliberations particularly of June 24, 2025 authored by BL Saraf to which Manoj Thappa expressed some disagreements on some points (D E June 25, 2025). Besides endorsing Manoj Thappa’s views, I too disagree with BL Saraf’s write up (D E June 24, 2025) on certain points and want to express a few of them as under:
That before the reorganization of Jammu & Kashmir, the official languages of J&K were Urdu and English and after the reorganization, three more official languages i.e. Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi were included vide an Act. of October 2020. Therefore, any aspirant has legal right to appear in any test of examination having knowledge of any of the 05 official languages as mentioned above.
That why the successive regimes of Jammu & Kashmir since last five or six decades did not feel it relevant to make Urdu language mandatory to be taught in the Government or private schools?
That it is true that whole revenue record in J&K is maintained in Urdu but it is not true that the revenue and judicial administration has been fully carried out in Urdu in J&K. In both the wings of J&K & Ladakh High Court i.e. Jammu and Srinagar, most of the judges don’t have the working knowledge of Urdu and particularly in Jammu wing more than90% of the legal fraternity (judges and advocates) don’t have working knowledge of Urdu but the judicial machinery of High Court is running smoothly.
That I disagree on the point that, “Post of Naib Tehsildar (NT) is an important cog for smooth running of Revenue Administration and that it is an indispensable lynchpin in the machinery”. Revenue Administration is run by departmental machinery ranging from Patwari to Revenue Commissioner i.e. Patwari, Girdawar, Naib-Tehsildar, Tehsildar, Asstt. Commissioner Revenue (ACR), Additional Deputy Commissioner(ADC), Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC), and Deputy Commissioner (DC) in a district and by Divisional Commissioner at provincial level and at secretariat level Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Additional Secretary, Private Secretary, Special Secretary, Secretary, Commissionercum Secretary,Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) and even the Chief Secretary. In totality there are seventeen ranks involved in running the revenue machinery smoothly in J&K, then why Urdu is mandatory for the post of Naib Tehsildar only ?
That there are hundreds of examples that post(s) of Naib Tehsildar (s) and its equilent are lying vacant at various levels across J&K UT, be it in Niabats, Tehsils, Sub-divisions, district headquarters, in division level offices or in various other offices, but it has never been seen or learnt that smooth running of work suffers because it is not a key position in the Revenue Department that in its absence, the revenue machinery will come to halt.
Nineteen (19) days have passed when such advertisement was issued by J&K SSRB
and despite of resentments and protests across Jammu province the Government didn’t budge even an inch from its stand which has further escalated the restlessness and resentment among the aspirants. The Government without further loss of time must come to the rescue of the aspirants and should remove the controversial clause i.e.working knowledge of Urdu for post of Naib Tehsildar from the advertisement dated 09-06-2025 forthwith so that the situation becomes normal and the non-Urdu knowing aspirants of Jammu province can also apply for the said post of Naib Tehsildar, well in time.
(The author is Former Dy. Director, Chairperson-Lok Adhikaar Mission J&K)
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