General secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Movement (JKPM) Shehla Rashid Shora has expressed deep concern over the manner in which candidates for Assistant Professorship in Kashmiri language are being discriminated against.
In a statement she said, “In 2017, JKPSC had announced 49posts each for Kashmiri and Dogri, and 25 posts for Punjabi, the cut-off forwhich was fixed at 55% for open category and at 45% for reserved categories. InMarch, 2019, the recruiting authority conducted interviews for Dogri andPunjabi. Curiously, all the selected candidates for Dogri and Punjabi wereawarded full marks in viva-voice and demo! After this, the JKPSCretrospectively lowered the cut-off to 50% for open category and 40% forreserved categories on 5th April, 2019. After that, the interviews for Kashmiriwere held from 28th to 30th May, 2019. In a sharp contrast to the full marksawarded to all Dogri and Punjabi candidates, the candidates for Kashmirilanguage were awarded very low marks in vice-voice and demo. Candidates havingyears of teaching experience were awarded zero in demo, and candidates withseveral publications were also awarded very low marks in the viva-voice. Thisopenly reeks of discrimination, and it is a brazen attempt to keep the posts inKashmiri language vacant.”
She said, “On 20th June, JKPSC announced the results of therecruitment process and, as expected, 23 out of the 49 posts advertised forAssistant Professor (Kashmiri) were declared vacant. It is worth noting thatthe interviews for Dogri and Punjabi were held before the cut-offs werelowered, resulting in higher marks being awarded to them, as the marks wereawarded on a higher scale (as per 55% cut off). All the candidates for Dogriand Punjabi were, for example, awarded full marks in viva voice and demo. Bycontrast, the interviews for Kashmiri were held after the lowering of thecut-off, resulting in lower marks being awarded for Kashmiri as these wereawarded according to a lower scale (as per 50% cut-off). As a result, 23 out of49 posts for Assistant Professor (Kashmiri) remained vacant, even though thereare numerous suitable candidates. JKPM demands that all the posts for AssistantProfessorship in Kashmiri language should be filled and the cut-off loweredfurther in order to accommodate otherwise eligible candidates, as the precedentfor lowering the cut-off has been set by JKPSC itself.”