Doing away with J&K cadre of civil services unwarranted, arbitrary: Bukhari

Terming the decision of abolition of Jammu and Kashmir cadre of civil services as unwarranted and arbitrary, former finance minister Syed Altaf Bukhari on Friday demanded that the decision be rolled back.

Bukhari also expressed strong reservations on doing away with the five year age relaxation granted to Jammu and Kashmir youth in the civil services examinations.

The decision of abolition of J&K cadre and doing away with the five year age relaxation are capricious and have come as a shocker for the people of Jammu and Kashmir, especially its aspirants for civil services careers, Bukhari said here.

The former finance minister said the decisions are confusing and do not make sense as the Centre had assured that there will be no fiddling with the cadre when statehood was revoked in August last year.

These decisions seem to have been taken without proper application of mind. Not only the sanctity of caderisation of civil services has been put to a question mark but the decision to abolish the J&K cadre will be a strong factor for demotivation of J&K youth who aspire to join the prestigious civil services in the country, he added.

Bukhari said the five year age relaxation was granted by the Central government to J&K civil service aspirants because of the region's topography, inclement climatic conditions and the hostile security scenario in Kashmir valley.

The merger of the cadre into the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh Goa and Mizoram Union Territories) cadre is a provision contained in the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019.