The latest was in favour of the employees as the Administrative Council, the highest decision making body in the present governance headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, scrapped Jammu and Kashmir Probationer (Condition of Service, Pay and Allowances) and Fixation Rules, 2020, notified vide S.O. 192 of 2020 (successor of S.O 202 of 2015) with effect from 1st of August, 2022.
The decision will bring all employees being appointed in the J&K on an equal footing with their earlier appointed counterparts who may be occupying the same and comparable posts in the cadre.
The decision is significant. Also a number of newly appointed employees and in-service candidates, who apply for higher posts but were not given pay protection, will also be alleviated.
The decision follows Establishment-cum-Selection Committee (ECSC) headed by the Chief Secretary finding that these rakes were discriminatory in nature.
The other decision in the recent past was doing away with the interviews for several posts in level 6. These posts include Motor Vehicle Inspector, Junior Stenographer, Library Assistant, Inspector Fisheries/ Farm Manager/ Equivalent, Assistant/ Surveyor Fisheries/ Equivalent, Refrigerator Mechanic, Incubator Mechanic and Junior Engineer (Civil and Mechanical).
The decision will ensure that selections are objectively fair and merit based, and it paves the way for advertisement of more than 1000 posts including 855 posts of Junior Engineer (Civil) which shall be filled up on a fast-track basis through the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board, the government underlined while announcing the abolishing of the interviews for the posts.
Not only this, the Lieutenant Governor has directed the identification of posts of similar nature which can be considered for exclusion from the requirement of Oral Test/Interview. In fact, the official statement said that a process has also been already initiated by the General Administration Department in this regard.
Both these decisions are welcome. The decision to scrap S.O. 192 of 2020 will end discrimination with employees affected with “discriminatory order” while decision to do away with the interviews for several posts is swill surely help in efficiency, transparency and timely conclusion of recruitment process.
Interviews were seen in the past as a means to get a job by using somebody’s influence while those deserving were deprived in the process. It is surely a major step in the fight against corruption and nepotism.
