Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir Students Association (JKSA) national convenor, Nasir Khuehami, on Friday met Left parties Members of Parliament — K. Radhakrishnan (CPI-M)) and K. Subbarayan (CPI) in New Delhi and apprised them of the concerns confronting the youth and students of Jammu and Kashmir.
As per a JKSA press release, Khuehami presented an overview of challenges facing students, job aspirants and unemployed youth across the Union Territory.
Seven years after the abrogation of Article 370, he said, it is imperative to undertake an objective assessment of whether the promises of transparent governance, employment generation, institutional accountability, educational advancement and democratic empowerment have translated into meaningful improvements in the lives of the ordinary people.
He informed that the aspirations of educated youth continue to be constrained by rising unemployment, delayed recruitment processes, administrative inefficiencies and declining public confidence in recruitment institutions.
He also informed the Left MPs that unemployment remains one of the most pressing socio-economic challenges confronting Jammu and Kashmir. Despite repeated assurances of transparent, merit-based recruitment, thousands of educated young people continue to remain unemployed owing to prolonged delays in public recruitment, repeated examination cancellations, paper leaks, recruitment scams, procedural irregularities, outsourcing controversies and prolonged litigation.
He said these recurring failures have not only denied deserving candidates fair employment opportunities, but have also inflicted severe academic, financial, psychological and emotional distress on an entire generation of aspirants.
Drawing attention to major recruitment controversies in recent years, Khuehami referred to examinations conducted for the Jammu and Kashmir Police Sub-Inspector (JKPSI), Finance Accounts Assistant (FAA), Junior Engineer (Civil), Fire and Emergency Services and several other recruitment processes that have faced allegations of paper leaks, manipulation, procedural lapses and administrative failures.
He pointed out that many candidates have spent years preparing for these examinations only to see recruitment processes cancelled or indefinitely delayed, while numerous aspirants have crossed the upper age limit awaiting justice and completion of the recruitment process.
He emphasised that government employment in Jammu and Kashmir is not merely a career option but a source of livelihood, dignity, social mobility and economic security for thousands of families. However, recurring examination irregularities, the absence of a predictable recruitment calendar, inadequate institutional accountability and delays in concluding investigations into recruitment scams have significantly eroded public trust in recruitment agencies and weakened confidence in the fairness and credibility of public institutions.
Khuehami urged the MPs to raise these concerns forcefully during the ongoing Monsoon Session and advocate comprehensive reforms to restore transparency, accountability and credibility in the recruitment system.
He called for a time-bound annual recruitment calendar, expeditious completion of all pending recruitment processes, strict accountability for those responsible for examination irregularities and paper leaks, stronger safeguards against recruitment fraud, greater parliamentary oversight of recruitment institutions and the adoption of a transparent, technology-driven recruitment mechanism to prevent future malpractice, the JKSA press release said.
