J&K Cong resents scrapping of bank POs recruitment

The Jammu and Kashmir unit of Congress on Saturday expressed resentment over the "arbitrary decision" of scrapping the recruitment exercise of 250 probationary officers and 1,200 banking associates and demanded immediate revocation of the order.

Citing various "legal infirmities", the Union Territory administration had on Thursday scrapped the recruitment process of the probationary officers and banking associates, which had started in 2018, and announced fresh recruitment process on fast-track basis through the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS).

Reacting to the development, Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Ravinder Sharma said the the government 's decision is arbitrary and without any justification.

"The government has woken up after two years of the recruitment exercise by a premier recruitment agency for banks. Around 1.5 lakhs candidates applied and appeared for the 1200 banking associates posts and 250 PO posts," he said.

He said the government could have procured the fresh result sheet from the recruiting agency and gone ahead with the further process of declaring the result of banking associates while conducting interviews for POs posts, instead of scrapping the entire process without any justified reason.

"There should be transparency in every action of the government, as there is large-scale resentment against the decision. The youths of J&K are deprived of the internet facilities and access to various kinds of knowledge based data for the past eight months and if the entire process is now made open for all candidates from the rest of the country, the youths of J&K shall suffer," he said.

He also criticized the withdrawal of the recruitment process for class IV posts from various districts, whereas the thousands of candidates appeared twice for the interview.

"Some of these candidates had even approached the high court too and the matter is sub-judice but the government has resorted to this action as most of the candidates have become over-aged for no fault on their part," the Congress leader said.

Sharma said it appears that the present dispensation is under pressure to pile up the figures of vacancies, by scraping the selection processes of these posts, in view of the opposition pressure to fulfil the promised 50,000 jobs as announced by the then Governor Satya Pal Malik.

Expressing concern over the repeated "anti-youth" action of the government, Sharma asked the government to reconsider and revoke the decisions and complete the ongoing selection process for JK Bank and Class IV posts without further delay.