Govt Overstaffed, But Forced To Create Jobs

The state governments salary bill for 1996 was Rs 1,400 crore. And there really isnt work for everyone who has been accommodated by successive governments, each eager to favour voters who looked to the sarkar to come up with a job for each graduate. And since education has been almost entirely free in the state since the 1950s, there were ever more graduates.

Unemployment is the main problem, says Muzaffar Ahmed, a final year student at the University of Kashmir. Nur Mohammad 50, of Manigam village, echoes that. So apart from the 26,000 new government jobs, the state police is set to employ 12,000 more. Under the rules, though, half of the new government jobs will have to go to promotees and, as BR Singh points out, Jammu residents will claim half the jobs. So, it will still be just a drop in the ocean of demand.

Muzaffar Ahmed points out that liberalisation should bring in more private sector jobs but has had no impact on the valley. Singh adds that, not only is it impossible to assure potential investors that it is now safe, even those who invested in the state in the late 1980s carp.

So, he says, there is no option but for the government to step into the breach and create jobs - even if it could do with fewer employees.

To complicate things, promotions in a number of departments are stuck because of court stays. Over the past 25 years, there has been so much cadre mismanagement that everyone has gone to court, says Singh. State education minister Abdul Qayoom points out that one out of every four teachers has sued the state. Owing to one court stay, no college principal can be appointed anywhere in the state.

The emphasis on jobs of course gives more scope for complaints of nepotism and corruption. Singh insists that those whove been put in charge of appointments now are above corruption.

However, since estimates of the demand for jobs are 100,000 to 150,000 in the valley alone, there are bound to be plenty of disappointed candidates to allege foulplay. There are already complaints about the quota that has been created for the relatives of those political workers who were killed by militants.