SRINAGAR: Leader of Opposition in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly, Sunil Sharma, on Thursday urged Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to intervene in the matter of the Naib Tehsildar recruitment exam and requested that the working knowledge of Urdu no longer be made a mandatory qualification.
Sharma, accompanied by Shri Sat Sharma, President of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Jammu and Kashmir, submitted that the current language requirement imposes an unjust disadvantage on aspirants, particularly those from the Jammu Division.
He argued that imposing knowledge of Urdu, while Jammu and Kashmir officially recognises five languages—Urdu, Hindi, English, Dogri, and Kashmiri—undermines the constitutional principles of equal opportunity and administrative neutrality.
“Mandating one language among five official languages is discriminatory,” Sharma stated during his meeting with the Lieutenant Governor, calling the stipulation an “unfair barrier” in a competitive examination that should be accessible to all qualified candidates, regardless of linguistic background.
The BJP leaders further requested that all government documents and procedural information be made available in each of the UT’s five official languages.
