“The rising demands for filling the vacant positions in health and education departments in given timelines from the legislators of both the ruling and opposition parties in the ongoing budget session of the assembly leave no scope for delaying further the already delayed recruitment processes”
Unemployment among and understaffing in Government Departments are undoubtedly Himalyan challenges for six month old Omar Abdullah led National Conference Government in Jammu & Kashmir. The details about 32000 vacancies left unfilled in 37 departments shared by the Government during the ongoing budget session of the assembly so for show that recruitments have not taken place at a steady pace over the period of years and the situation as such necessitates a greater focus on expediting recruitments more so in health and education departments in view of their involvement with the delivery key public services. Though administrative wisdom demands that Government carries out budgetary calculations to look into the financial constraints involved in filling the vacant positions but compulsions involved in the recruitments for prompt delivery of key public services in health and education sectors would ultimately force the Government to fast track the recruitment processes for education and health departments. The rising demands for filling the vacant positions in health and education departments in given timelines from the legislators of both the ruling and opposition parties in the ongoing budget session of the assembly leave no scope for delaying further the already delayed recruitment processes . For smooth functioning of both the public health and public education systems the Government would be obviously driven more by compulsions and less by budgetary constraints involved in filling the vacant positions in health and education departments.
“Without calculating the budgetary involvements in filling the vacant positions, checking the status of referrals made by the Departments to recruiting agencies like J&K PSC and J&K SSB and reviewing the conduct of recruitment tests for the purposes of their transparency the apprehensions about recruitments are likely to remain as they are there for last several decades. Finally bureaucratic hurdles if allowed to persist could spoil even the strongest recruitment system as has been witnessed in decades of popular rules under erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir State.”
Before fast tracking recruitments the more pressing matter for the Government could be the process of referrals which is to be continued with a greater speed keeping in view the fact that recruitment processes always begin with referring of vacant positions to recruiting agencies. Since experiences of decades have shown that transparency is one single factor that delays the process of recruitments whether carried out by J&K Public Service Commission (J&K PSC) or J&K Services Selection Board (J&K SSB), it is for the Government to look into the lapses of the recruitment processes noticed in recent years and plug the holes accordingly to leave no scope for any lapses in the new recruitment processes. Without calculating the budgetary involvements in filling the vacant positions, checking the status of referrals made by the Departments to recruiting agencies like J&K PSC and J&K SSB and reviewing the conduct of recruitment tests for the purposes of their transparency the apprehensions about recruitments are likely to remain as they are there for last several decades. Finally bureaucratic hurdles if allowed to persist could spoil even the strongest recruitment system as has been witnessed in decades of popular rules under erstwhile Jammu & Kashmir State.
