Visit Ladakh | News
Thursday, 11 March 2010 19:36
Only 4 of 22 JK districts to benefit, pleas to defer dates ignored
Jammu, March 10: Despite SMS campaigns and awareness camps to motivate Kashmiri students for appearing in J&K State Combined Services Examination, the gloomy scenario maintaining for past few years is not expected to change. The examination schedule is, deliberately or incidentally, skewed in favour of aspirants from only four of 22 districts of the state.
Over past few years, the percentage of Kashmiri aspirants and those coming from six hilly districts of Jammu province and two districts of Ladakh region qualifying Combined Services Examinations, popularly known as Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS), has been constantly falling. As last two exam results, one of KAS and other of Naib Tehsildars, suggested Kashmiri students are just going off the charts, there has been a sustained campaign in Kashmir Valley and peripheral districts of Jammu province to motivate the students to take chance.
However, the Public Service Commission has come up with an examination schedule that is pre-detrimental against the success scope of students coming from these areas. The KAS mains examination - second and most important part of entire calendar -begins by March 15. This is immediately after four months of adverse climatic conditions prevailing across Kashmir Valley and other hilly districts. It is by the beginning of March only that weather conditions start improving and exam preparations actually pick up among the student community in these areas.
Soon after the Public Service Commission announced its exam schedule for KAS, hundreds of representations were made to this recruiting agency and several to the Chief Minister’s grievance cell by aggrieved aspirants. These students were apparently not bargaining for time but there were true experiences. Out of 135 total selections in last batch of KAS, 98 were from Jammu, seven from Ladakh and 30 from entire Kashmir Valley. The controversial list of Naib Tehsildars had 75 per cent of the total selected candidates from four districts of Jammu province, viz. Jammu, Samba, Kathua and Udhampur. A common feature in both exams was that they were conducted in the month of March during respective years.
This is not the only way the career aspirants are put to blatant disadvantage by the J&K Public Service Commission. The PSC has designed its exam schedule in a manner that aspirants from Jammu and Kashmir get only one choice of the two: take KAS mains exam or appear in All India Civil Services viva-voce. The Union Public Service Commission has a much disciplined schedule of its exams. Candidates clearing mains will be required to present themselves for the viva-voce in Delhi, beginning March 10. Those students who qualify the UPSC mains will have to make a choice - either appear in KAS mains beginning March 15 or go to Delhi for viva-voce.
Of late, an increasing number of candidates from Jammu and Kashmir have been making it to All India Civil Services. Only last year, five from the state qualified for All India Services. 45 candidates from J&K had written the UPSC mains and 12 were called for interview. This year more than 200 are reported to have written the mains and good number of them is expected to qualify for the final stage but they will find themselves in quandary - courtesy J&K PSC.
There is another category career aspirants are pushed in dilemma by the PSC. As PSC goes ahead with its schedule of KAS mains exam, around same time hundreds of aspirants have been called for interviews for the post of Higher Secondary School Lecturers. In such circumstances they take only either of the two.
As representations and pleas for postponing KAS exams piled up in hundreds before the PSC and CM’s grievance cell, the PSC has come up with a strange reply and a strange suggestion. “Due to compulsions, we are in no position to change exam schedule…those appearing for lecturer interviews are advised to appear for interviews in afternoon or next day morning if their exam date clashes with KAS mains,” said the PSC in a recent notice, widely publicised through newspapers.
RK
Jammu, March 11 (Scoop News)- J&K Governor, N. N. Vohra, while appreciating the stupendous role being played by the Red Cross Society by providing timely aid to the injured, ill and others in distress, he expressed satisfaction that the collections made to the Red Cross corpus by the well-minded citizens, philanthropists and organizations are growing year after year which demonstrate the growth of this organization in J&K State.