Over one lakh registered for jobs, Govt says 21,000 vacancies available, PSC, SSB recruiting currently 13,000

DEEPAK KHAJURIA

JAMMU: Even as over one lakh educated up to the level of post graduation and above are registered as unemployed and job seekers with the employment exchanges, the government said today that it has 21,000 vacancies while 13,000 positions have been referred to the recruiting agencies.
As already reported in this newspaper, of the 104577 unemployed youth registered with the district employment and counselling centres across 22 districts in the state, 20255 are graduates -15019 from Kashmir and only 5236 from Jammu division. Similarly, there 6890 post graduates registered for the jobs and of them 4809 are from Kashmir and only 2081 from Jammu region.
Meanwhile the government disclosed today that over 21,000 posts are vacant in 37 different departments of the state government.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, who is also holding the portfolio of General Administration Department (GAD), informed the Legislative Assembly in a written reply that total 3,417 gazetted and 18,300 non-gazetted posts are lying vacant in different state government departments and the process to fill them up is going on.
Replying to the query of MLA Mohammad Ashraf Mir from ruling PDP, the GAD Department informed that to fill up the vacancies, 2,470 gazetted posts have been referred to the Public Service Commission (PSC), while 10,336 non-gazetted posts have been referred to the Service Selection Board (SSB).
Giving department and category-wise details of the vacancies, the government said that of the total 3,417 gazetted posts, the most vacancies, 1,162, are in the Higher Education Department while the Dept of Science and Technology has 1,059 gazetted posts vacant and Health and Medical Education department has vacant 400 gazetted posts.
The reply further states that 330 gazetted posts are vacant in the General Administration Services, 99 in Cooperatives, 44 in Power Department and 37 in Home Department.
Among the total 41 government departments, there is no vacant gazetted post in 21 departments.
Besides, there is not a single vacancy against gazetted or non-gazetted posts in Culture, Ladakh Affairs and Floriculture Departments.
Among the total 18,300 vacant non-gazetted posts, the School Education department has the highest number of 4,837 vacancies followed by 2,825 in Health and Medical Education. There are 1,775 vacancies in Forest department, 1,720 in Revenue Department, 1,658 in Finance department, 962 in Department of PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, 758 in Social Welfare Department and 678 in Public Works Department.
Referring to the recruitment process, the government reply further stated that the J&K Special Recruitment Rules, 2015 have been notified vide SRO-202 dated June 30, 2015, which provide for filling up the vacant posts in various departments in a time bound manner.
It is pertinent to mention here that the number of unemployed youth registered in various District Employment and Counseling Centres of J&K increased from 1,06,130 in 2008 to 3,07,827 in December 2013, thereby registering an increase of 190%. However, the actual number may be higher as all the unemployed do not register themselves with Employment Exchanges.