SRINAGAR: Caving into the massive protests by job aspirants in Srinagar and Jammu against the hiring of blacklisted firm Aptech for the conduct of the recruitment process in J&K, Lt Governor administration has deferred the recruitment exams, which were scheduled to begin from Thursday.
J&K Services Selection Board, which had defended hiring of the blacklisted firm for conduct of recruitment process, announced that computer-based examinations for various posts scheduled w.e.f. 16.03.2023 to 05.04.2023 have been deferred till further intimation.
Lt Governor Manoj Sinha told reporters on the sidelines of a function that the government has suspended the exams for the time being. “The exams will be held soon when J&KSSB is fully confident. Even a single doubt concerns us, as transparency is our priority. Be it recruitment based on merit we are not ready to compromise. The recruitments will be done based on merit,” he said.
Reacting to postponement of exams, former J&K Chief Minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti tweeted, “Power of J&Ks youth has forced authorities to defer exams. But this is still not enough unless APTECH isn’t removed and a thorough probe ordered along with fresh exams conducted by a credible agency. Least LG admin can do after wasting precious time of J&Ks youngsters. (sic)”
The job aspirants have been holding daily massive protests in Srinagar, Jammu and other parts of J&K against hiring of blacklisted firm (Aptech Computers) for conduct of recruitment process on government posts in J&K. They alleged that hiring of blacklisted firm has raised a serious question mark on fairness of the process. The agency Aptech Limited was blacklisted in many states including UP, Rajasthan, and Assam.