SRINAGAR: People’s Democratic Party (PDP) legislator Waheed-ur-Rehman Para lashed out at the Jammu Kashmir government over its “abject failure” to provide employment, citing official data that shows more than 17,000 government posts lying vacant across various departments.
Para criticised the government for failing to fulfil its pledge of creating one lakh jobs for unemployed youth, saying it had “completely failed” to deliver on its commitment. “Unemployment in Jammu and Kashmir has soared to an alarming 32 percent — the highest in the country. Each figure reflects not just a statistic but a broken promise, a shattered dream, and a generation driven to hopelessness,” he said while responding to the official data presented in the Assembly.
According to the official data presented in the Assembly in response to Parra’s unstarred question, there are 2,960 Gazetted and 14,493 Non-Gazetted posts lying vacant across various government departments, taking the total to 17,453 positions.
The Health and Medical Education Department accounts for the highest number of vacancies, 985 Gazetted and 5,300 Non-Gazetted posts, totaling 7,285, followed by the Finance Department with 1,561 and the Power Development Department with 1,497 unfilled posts. Other departments with major vacancies include Industries and Commerce (1,175), Public Works (1,099), and Jal Shakti (987).
Para said that such large-scale vacancies reflect the government’s indifference toward educated youth. “These are not just numbers; they are lost opportunities for thousands of young people who have been waiting endlessly for recruitment drives that never come,” he said.
Accusing the NC government of betraying public trust, Parra added, “When the government sits silent while thousands of sanctioned posts remain vacant, it is not inefficiency, it is betrayal.”
The data also reveals unfilled positions across School Education, Social Welfare, Rural Development, and other essential sectors, further intensifying concerns about administrative stagnation and service delivery gaps in the Union Territory.
