New job policy has adverse implications, say experts

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 26

The Jammu and Kashmir Government’s controversial new recruitment policy will have long-term adverse repercussions and chances of creating an unequal society, experts have warned. The government had recommended that future appointments would be made on contractual basis and official recruiting agencies would be exempt in some cases.

The recruitment policy was approved by the state Cabinet last week, but returned with queries by Governor NN Vohra. It has been criticised by experts, former officials, political parties and the unemployed youth as “exploitation of labour”.

The new recruitment policy empowered the state government to “exempt certain posts or class of posts” from the purview of the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the Services Selection Board (SSB).

“It is unconstitutional and outside the system. There are well-placed institutions within the Constitution and the system which have the constitutional mandate. The decision now is to create a new institution which does not have constitutional or legal mandate. That is the reason the state government is going in for an ordinance,” said economist Nisar Ali.

He said the decision of the state government to circumvent established institutions like the PSC and the SSB would result in “diluting the mechanism that is already in place”.

Mohammad Shafi Pandit, a former chairman of the PSC, said the new policy took away the jurisdiction of the official recruiting agency. “It is inappropriate to do it because the belief is that institutions should be allowed to work,” he said.

The state’s first Muslim IAS officer, Pandit said contractual appointments should not be done on a long-term basis and the process should be made transparent. “The long-term repercussion is definitely bad. The question is why institutions should be given the go-by,” he said.

According to the new policy, contractual employees would be regularised after seven years based on a subjective clause of “satisfactory service”, not present in the existing Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act 2010, which would be repealed by the proposed legislation.

Government jobs had always been prized in the state for stability and security factors, both of which had been stripped in the new policy. Experts warned that this might open up the possibility of an exodus of the youth from the state.

Peer Suhail of the Centre for Research and Development Policy, which held a debate yesterday to discuss the pros and cons of the new recruitment policy, said there was a threat that it might lead to inequality and chaos in the region.

“It will lead to inequality in society in the long term because of the disparity it will create in all aspects,” he said. “It will be exploitation of labour and the state cannot excuse itself from providing jobs when you do not have a healthy private sector,” he said.