J&K notifies rules for common test in UT for Class-IV posts
The Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday framed rules providing for a common written test across the Union Territory for Class-IV posts arising at even district and divisional levels.
Earlier, recruitment to Class-IV district- and divisional-level vacancies was made from among candidates from respective districts or divisions.
However, to ensure a fair chance to local candidates to get selected for these jobs, the rules provided for grant of 5-10 additional marks over and above what they obtained in the written test.
A notification about J&K Appointment to Class IV (Special Recruitment) Rules, 2020, was issued by General Administration Department (GAD) here on Thursday, doing away with the practice of advertising vacancies and then making recruitment at district, provincial and state levels in the erstwhile state of J&K.
The new rules have been made by UT administration under powers conferred by proviso to Article 309 of Indian Constitution read with Section 15 of J&K Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act, 2010, the notification pointed out.
The rules say candidates will be selected by Service Selection Board on the basis of only the written test; they provide for 85 marks for UT cadre posts, and additional marks to different category of candidates, such as 5 marks for candidates whose family member neither is nor has been in government service, 5 marks for widows, divorced women, judicially separated women and orphan girls, and 5 points for casual workers engaged for five years or more.
For divisional cadre posts, the rules provide 80 marks for written test, besides five additional marks for candidates belonging to home division, apart from other categories. Local candidates in case of district cadre posts will get 10 additional marks over and above marks in written test, apart from five marks to other categories.
National Conference provincial president Devender Rana said the practice of recruitment to Class-IV posts at the district level was introduced to ensure fair competition among candidates from a similar academic ecosystem, as those coming from far-off rural districts such as Doda, Kishtwar, Poonch and Kupwara may not be able to compete with candidates from districts such as Jammu and Srinagar. Allocation of 10 additional marks to local candidates during selection for district cadre posts cannot serve that purpose, Rana said.
Ankur Sharma, leader of the outfit IkkJutt, which claims to fight against purported attempts to change Jammu’s demography, however, called the new rules “reasonable classification’’. He said the Indian Constitution does not permit recruitment of people on the basis of caste, creed, colour and even their place of birth.
