JKSSB’s RTI Reply: Flawed figures, hidden revenue, and unemployment crisis

SRINAGAR — Jammu Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB), which is frequently in the news for the wrong reasons, has come up with figures which are absolutely flawed with regard to applications it has received from the job aspirants and vacancies filled up.

JKSSB has also shown its reluctance to make the data about revenue generation to the public.

Under the Right to Information Act, the applicant MM Shuja had sought information from the recruiting board, asking it how much revenue it has generated from jobless youth in the shape of application fees and demand drafts in Jammu and Kashmir for the last four years.

The Board in its first reply said that after working out, the data will be provided to the information seeker and then later on the JKSSB claimed that the information about revenue generation can’t be divulged under section 8(e) of the Right to Information Act.

Telephonically, a JKSSB official admitted that there is no record of how much revenue it has generated from job aspirants. In other words, it can be safely said that the Board has not maintained any proper record.

From 2019 to 2022, the official data reveals that 26,22,285 (Twenty-six lakh, twenty-two thousand and two hundred eighty-five) job aspirants have applied for different posts advertised by JKSSB and they properly paid submission fees.

JKSSB received 26,22,285, applications from job aspirants while it advertised 26,687 (Twenty-six thousand six hundred and eighty-seven) posts from 2019 to 2022.

Ironically, JKSSB has claimed that it filled 2616 vacancies in 2019 though the number of posts advertised was below the selected number of candidates. How 2616 vacancies were filled up when there were only 2026 posts advertised is a riddle that only the Board can solve.

The same is the case for the years 2021 and 2022. Also, the vacancies filled up are more than the posts advertised.

The data also highlights the graph of unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir. From 2019 to 2022, out of over 26 lakh job aspirants, only over 16,000 people have secured government jobs.

As per the data, only over 3,000 posts have been forwarded by different departments to JKSSB for the last four years.