SRINAGAR: Resuming some normality on the last day of its inaugural session, the lawmakers in Jammu and Kashmir assembly offered telling instances of how the new verification rules are resulting in painful stories in Kashmir society.
Brining the instance of a girl, Sabia Mushtaq to the house in his speech, Congress lawmaker Nizamuddin Bhat said she is an orphan and is a English literature scholar. “She was selected twice to be the lecturer on open merit,” Bhat said. “Both the times, her appointment was cancelled because her juvenile brother was once accused of stone pelting. She was not permitted to join the service despite the fact that the court has absolved the minor of all charges.”
Bhat also mentioned the case of journalist Sajad who is imprisoned under Public Safety Act for some new story he has done. “His brother is a PhD scholar and he was denied his right to join the service because of the service verification rules in vogue.”
The Congressman, who migrated from PDP to PC and joined Congress in anticipation of the assembly elections, requested the Chief Minister to personally review these case. He said there were the day when the gunmen were allowed to represent people in this house and now the people with merit and simple job seekers are being denied to earn their livelihoods.
Speaking on the same issue, Peoples Conference’s Sajad Lone said the verification rules are a knot for the youth in Kashmir. He said there are countless instances in which the meritorious were denied the right to job because somebody in their clan has something in the police records. He said that across India, the person who is to be appointed is investigated for his personal integrity and character. “In Jammu and Kashmir, the entire clan is being investigated,” Lone regretted. “I strongly demand that the system which is in vogue in the rest of the country should also be implemented here. Investigate the person who is to be appointed not his family or his clan.”
Lone said this is the system in vogue for passports also. “I was personally denied a passport for five years but that is a different story.” He said this is adding to the frustration and the tensions in the youth bulge.
Post 2018, the administration in Jammu and Kashmir promulgated interesting verification systems under which if a person has any of his close or distant relatives with separatists, stone pelting or militancy, he automatically falls in the negative list for getting a passport or a job in the government.
