Muskan Thakur
Early Times Report
Jammu, Sept 25: Jammu and Kashmir's two premier recruitment agencies have pocketed a staggering Rs 82.45 crore from the region's unemployed educated youth in the form of examination and application fees over the past 23 months, even as thousands of aspirants continue to wait for their results.
The eye-watering figure emerged in a written government reply tabled in the Legislative Assembly, responding to a query from BJP MLA from Jammu East, Yudhvir Sethi, on fresh government appointments made in J&K since October 2024.
According to the reply, the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) alone collected a massive Rs 67.44 crore (Rs 67,44,41,800) during the period, while the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) raked in a further Rs 15.01 crore (Rs 15,00,99,000) — pushing the combined haul from the two agencies past the Rs 82-crore mark.
The scale of the collection stands in stark contrast to the pace of actual job creation. Together, JKPSC and JKSSB advertised 12,241 government posts since October 2024 but have finalised selections for just 4,702 of them — meaning lakhs of applicants across the Union Territory have paid up, sat exams, and are still waiting, while less than 40 percent of advertised vacancies have actually been filled.
JKSSB, which handles recruitment across Union Territory, divisional and district cadres, advertised the bulk of the posts — 10,379 in all — and finalised 2,934 appointments, split between 1,376 for the Jammu division and 1,558 for Kashmir.
JKPSC, which conducts recruitment for gazetted posts across administrative departments, advertised a comparatively modest 1,862 posts and finalised 1,768 selections. The government noted that JKPSC posts fall under the Union Territory cadre, so division-wise data is neither required nor maintained. Selection processes for another 935 JKPSC posts are still underway, with 304 posts set to be re-advertised and 20 fresh advertisements in the pipeline.
Pressed on why the fees have not been waived despite the massive sums collected from job-seekers, the government maintained that the charges merely offset the cost of running the recruitment process — covering application processing and scrutiny, examination logistics, hiring of centres and manpower, question paper preparation, security arrangements, IT infrastructure, and result evaluation — and were "not a source of revenue or profit."
Officials said fees are levied under applicable rules, with concessions extended to specified categories where provisions allow, and argued the practice mirrors the fee structures used by national bodies such as the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Staff Selection Commission (SSC). |
