Kashmir Has 6 Lakh Jobless Youth: Report

Even as the number of unemployed youth has swelled to a staggering 6-lakh mark, more than 72,000 posts are still lying vacant in various government departments in the state.

The state government’s lackadaisical approach to fill the vacant posts could be gauged from the fact that it had filled just 11,807 vacancies in various departments in the past two years. It, however, claimed that nearly 80,000 vacancies would be filled through fast-track mode in the coming two years.

“A total of 72,852 posts comprising 10,163 gazetted, 44,991 non-gazetted and 17,698 Class IV are vacant in various government departments and semi-government undertakings. The maximum number of posts is vacant in the School Education Department,” an official document said.

As many as 23,552 posts, including 4,035 in gazetted category, 15,701 in non-gazetted cadre and 3,816 in Class IV category, are vacant in School Education department, it said, adding that only 4,427 posts were filled in the past two years.

“To date, out of a total 59,105 daily wagers registered with the finance department, 55,665 have been regularised. The regularisation of the leftover cases is a continuous process and is considered on a case-to-case basis as and when the cases, complete in all respects, are furnished by respective administrative departments,” the document said.

Minister for Finance Abdul Rahim Rather said the government would fill about 80,000 vacant posts through fast-track recruitment in the coming two years. He said in this regard a Special Consultant had been engaged to assist the Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) in the recruitment process.

The state government had last year implemented new recruitment policy to “reduce the non-plan expenditure in respect of salaries. For the initial period of five years of service, pay of direct recruits would be regulated as per fixed monthly salary.

“The SSRB is proceeding in a speedy manner by advertising posts, notifying, conducting written tests and holding interviews in a time-bound manner for new recruitment. As regards the promotion quota vacancies, instructions have been given to all departments to hold DPCs in a time-bound manner,” the Finance Minister said.

A total of 5,94,172 youth have been registered at various district-level employment exchanges across the state till September 2012.

Out of these, 3,12,977 are from the Kashmir region and 2,81,195 from Jammu division.
As many as 1,82,453 registered unemployed youth are Class XII pass followed by 1,66,152 matriculates. 8,32,555 graduates, 20,976 postgraduates and around 30,000 technically qualified (including ITI) youth are also registered with the department.


(TNS)