The first major recruitment by the Jammu and Kashmir administration after the scrapping of Article 370 has been marred by allegations of large scale corruption and fraud. After protests, Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Thursday ordered a probe into recruitment of 1,200 Sub-Inspector posts in Jammu and Kashmir Police.
The probe panel will be headed RK Goyal, Additional Chief Secretary Home, Jammu and Kashmir. The aggrieved candidates however demand a CBI probe given the magnitude of the alleged scam.
The protesters allege brazen discrepancies and manipulation of the merit list released by the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board or JKSSB.
Around 97,000 candidates had appeared in exams conducted by the JKSSB.
Addressing a police function, Mr Sinha said a panel has been constituted to probe the allegations.
"All the recruitment process held so far have been transparent and clean. But fingers have been raised against the J&K SSB list of SI posts. We have decided to constitute a committee that will be headed by Secretary Home to probe the allegations levelled by some people," said Mr Sinha.
After Jammu and Kashmir was stripped of its statehood and special constitutional status in August 2019, the administration promised to fill 50,000 vacancies in government departments within three months. But even after three years, fewer post have been filled and the recruitment process has been very slow.
For example, for 8,000 Class IV posts, over three lakh candidates appeared two year ago. The final selection list is still awaited.
Days after the merit list of sub-inspectors in police was made public, serious discrepancies have surfaced. Among the toppers in the list are allegedly siblings from 20 families raising doubts about the fairness of selection process.
The selection of 40 candidates from a specific area and specific centre in Jammu has also raised eyebrows.
"We demand a CBI probe. If government has nothing to hide they should order an impartial probe and expose this massive scam" says an aggrieved candidate.
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