1. Home
2. Columnist

An open letter to Dy. CM J&K Dr. Nirmal Singh

By Manik. Dated: 4/26/2015 12:20:25 AM

The sham new recruitment policy

To,
Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh
Jammu and Kashmir government.

Dear Sir,
When your government set in motion the agenda to streamline rampant corruption in education department, I had thought that your government would really do something better but soon your government announced the closure of four government schools in the heart of Jammu city.
It made me little astonished but what shocked me was when the State Cabinet, of which, you are also a member, announced a New Recruitment Policy in which all the fresh appointments will be made on contractual basis and the appointees will be regularized after putting in seven years of satisfactory service.
Obviously as an educated youth it shattered me and it also has possibly dismayed every youth of the state. I shared the same with many others and got only reservations against the decision. Even some compared this policy with the previous recruitment policy of Omar government and claimed that the Omar's policy was far better than the present one as it had excluded the gazetted employees and moreover the tenure for regularization was 5 years.
Dear elected legislator, I congratulate you on implementing the 'Governance Alliance' successfully but frankly speaking, I a youth and a voter from Billawar (your constituency), didn't expect that it would going to be in this way. Perhaps, you were only following your bosses at the Centre because they are also proudly implementing the same neo-liberal agenda of 'Good-Governance' in the guise of 'Make in India'.
I am writing this letter to you because of two reasons. Primarily your party stood for eliminating discrimination with Jammu and also you are the prime image of your party in the state, that too in Cabinet.
Now what happened to this voice? A report published in a daily news paper revealed that the state government departments have 60,000 vacancies in gazetted and non-gazetted ranks. As an experienced professor and having close proximity with the young students and scholars, I think you better sense their aspiration of a permanent job.
Why should not these vacancies be filled on permanent basis?
The prime argument behind this move would possibly be the starvation of public exchequer or financial crunch. This is not only the argument of state governments but also of the Centre as well. This has been asserted heavily by the governments against the public sector but what happen when it comes to tax rebate to the Corporates and the many forms in which compensation and subsidies are given to them?
Every year the government announces lakhs of crores of tax rebate in the Union budget for them. Can't J&K being a federal part of the union get some share from those rebates?
However, the government has chosen the right time to announce this policy because much of the attention of public is distracted towards much hyped identity issues like- re-arresting of Masarat Alam and also the shifting of AIIMS to Kashmir. I know you are also concerned about the killing of a 10th class student at Narbal and possibly your government will control the situation by putting the coercive machinery at work.
Similarly the central government has distracted the public of rest of India in many similar issues like much hyped Modi tours round the world, much debated Land Acquisition Bill, Ghar Wapsi, Ban on cow slaughter, security concerns, Godse temple, Beti-Bachao Beti-Padao, Jan-dan Yojana etc etc (many states many issues).
But dear sir, how can you forget the people of Jammu, for whom your party stood in strong voice to end the Baap-Beti and Baap-Beta dynastic rule? Why didn't you speak when the decision was taken in your presence in the cabinet meeting? Wouldn't the youths of J&K begin to think that the new recruitment policy framed by Omar-government, which was later withdrawn in the wake of state assembly elections, was atleast a tad better than the present policy framed by your government?
How will you respond to such questions? How will you face the youths of Billawar when they demand for the vote they cast for you? Possibly you will distract them on above mentioned petty issues of identity politics. The case would be same for ABVP also but I think they are trained enough and have rich experience in upholding such decisions especially when their parent party is in power.
Last but not the least, what makes the difference whether it is your party, NC or PDP?.
Manik
Student of Political Science