Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
JAMMU: Even as the National Conference (NC) government attempted to protect thousands of the candidates from disqualification on account of the age bar on 31 December 2024 and got nearly 600 vacancies of the Higher Secondary lecturers notified for selection on 9 December 2024, the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) has not been able to make the exam syllabus available till date.
Consequently, thousands of the job aspirants with Masters and Doctorate in their subjects have landed in trouble as they have been denied time for preparations for the written examination.
“We are totally in the dark. We don’t know what we have got to study and what not. We don’t know when the PSC would notify the date for the exam and how thousands of the candidates could plan their leaves, holidays. Hundreds of them are working or studying across the country or overseas. They are in total distress”, said Ahmed Ali, a candidate who filed his papers immediately after receiving his EWS certificate last fortnight.
Five hundred and seventy-five vacancies in different subjects were notified for selection of candidates vide Notification No: 07-PSC (DR-P) of 2024 Dated 09-12-2024. January 17th was fixed as the last date for filing of candidacies.
While 54 vacancies were advertised for Mathematics, 52 for Botany, 51 for Chemistry, 50 for Physics, 49 each for Political Science and English, 48 for Education and 41 for Environmental Science, 28 posts were notified for Economics and 14 for History. Besides, 10 posts were advertised for Commerce, 6 for Geography, 4 each for Persian, Functional English and Psychology, 3 each for Kashmiri and Dogri, 2 each for Arabic and Geology and 1 for Punjabi.
Subsequently, 19 more vacancies of Higher Secondary Lecturers were advertised vide Notification No: 01-PSC(DR-P) of 2025 dated 22-01-2025.
By way of the second notification, 50 vacancies were advertised for Zoology, 36 for Urdu, 15 for Hindi, 13 for Sociology, 3 for Sanskrit and one each for Music and Statistics. However, only those with the age of 40 years, as on 1 January 2025, were made eligible to apply in the Open Merit. All candidates of OM and Reserved categories who attained the age bar on 31 December 2024 were disqualified for the competition.
The NEWS NOW learned that the PSC has failed to get the exam syllabus prepared and notified in the last 50 days.
Senior functionaries at the J&K PSC maintained that the preparation of the syllabus was the exclusive responsibility of the indenting department (J&K Government’s School Education Department in this particular case). “We will publish the syllabus for the candidates as soon as we receive it from the indenting department.
While nobody in the School Education Department agreed to speak on record, well-placed sources maintained that “adhocism and non-seriousness” at the bureaucratic level was mainly responsible for such delays.
“SED is a full-fledged, very large department. It always needs to be headed by a senior IAS officer. But in the last few years, Indian Forest Service and Indian Revenue Service officers have remained posted as Principal (administrative) Secretaries in this key department. Current incumbent Suresh Kumar is also a senior IFS officer who has been recently appointed as J&K’s Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Head of the Forest Force. He is taking over that posting on 1 February (2025). Since such important departments cannot be run as additional charge to IFS and IRS officers, we are expecting an IAS officer of the rank of Financial Commissioner or Principal Secretary as the next head”, said a bureaucratic source at the Civil Secretariat.
