Selection process stays grounded

Arteev Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 10

The selection process for all civil posts in government departments of the state has come to a halt as the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) is awaiting the appointment of chairman and members for the last three months.

The JKPSC regulates the recruitment of gazetted officers in government departments. The nine-member commission is defunct and it is likely to get a new chairman and members after the formation of the next government in the state.

Then chairman SL Bhat retired in September 2014. KB Jandial was the last member to demit office on November 16 last year. The commission had been rendered defunct ever since that date.

The National Conference and the Congress coalition regime had failed to bring a consensus over the selection of new members of the commission.

“The process for gazetted posts has been stopped as there is no chairman and member. The selection process of more than 1,700 posts of assistant professor has been challenged. There are more than 600 posts in medical and engineering institutions,” said a JKPSC official on the condition of anonymity.

The official said the commission, having the official motto of “being fair to all and being seen as such”, was never given fair treatment by successive regimes in the stat. He said it had operated with less than half of its sanctioned strength in the recent few years.

“Against the sanctioned strength of eight members and a chairman, the JKPSC had been operating with just three members and the chairman. Till 2013, there were three members in the commission, but finally, it was rendered defunct last year,” the official said.

The official said the selection process for various posts of the commission had always remained affected because of the decreasing size of the commission.

He said the the previous government did not bother to complete the sanctioned strength of its members and expedite the selection procedure.

The commission was constituted in 1957. Apart from its main task of selection, the commission was consulted on “principles to be followed in making promotions and transfers from one service to another and on suitability of candidates and on all disciplinary matters affecting a person”.