Another recruitment scam has surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir leaving people wondering how deep the rot in the governance system here. Allegations of a paper leak ahead of a recruitment test emerged on Sunday, with different political parties criticising government for ‘playing with the future’ of the youth following which the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) announced the cancellation of the written test and said they would be held afresh. In an order, the JKSSB stated the OMR-based written examination was scheduled for Sunday from 11.00 am across 35 examination venues in Jammu and Srinagar. However, due to weather-related exigencies, the timings were rescheduled to 12.00 noon. The examination was successfully conducted across 34 venues, but could not be conducted at one venue and therefore, it has decided by the Board to cancel the OMR-Based Examination for the posts of Junior Engineer (Electrical), Power Development Department, conducted on 24.08.2025 and shall be conducted afresh.
No where the JKSSB mentions about the paper leakage. The statement issued by the Board sounds a normal one as if it was a routine matter. No, it wasn’t. It was a well-planned conspiracy to sell the posts that were to be filled on open merit. There are reports that the question papers were already available on social media and the political parties too have cited these media posts while targeting the ruling National Conference. For JKSSB, it may be just matter of issuing an order and thus cancelling the examination. But for hundreds of aspirants, it is trauma. They have been preparing for this test hardly and when they had reached examination centres, it dawned on them that the select ones had already access to the question papers. Shame!
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Given the history of such incidents in Jammu and Kashmir, the paper-leak issue will remain in news and social media for some time; opposition parties will try to settle scores for a few days; issue will be discussed in social circles for some time and finally it will one more scam buried under the mud. If government of the day is really serious to deal with this rot, it should hold accountable the JKSSB top officials. Whatever has happened isn’t possible unless some top guns of the Board are involved. First of all, the head of the JKSSB should have resigned on moral grounds but expecting such a thing in Jammu and Kashmir is asking too much. The government, instead of hiding the truth and allowing JKSSB come up with vague cancelation statement should find out how this paper leakage has happened. It is not one-man job; there would be several within the Board involved in it. Let, for once, the government come clean and tell people what is going on under its own nose. Let heads roll, let guilty be punished so that no one, sitting on important government position, ever dares to play with the future of J&K youth.
