J&K govt cancels 'fraud' PSI recruitment, CBI probe ordered

In a major relief to thousands of genuine aspirants, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led Jammu and Kashmir administration on Friday cancelled the police sub-inspector (PSI) recruitment and recommended a CBI probe into the irregularities in the written test.

"JKP Sub-Inspector recruitment has been cancelled & a CBI probe has been recommended into the selection process. Culprits will be brought to justice soon. It's a first big step towards securing future of our youth & govt will soon decide the future course of action for fresh recruitment,” Office of LG J&K tweeted.

In the past, the selection of police Sis in J&K was always done by the Police Department. It was for the first time that the government decided to conduct this exam through the J&K Services Selection Board (JKSSB).

To do the selection through the JKSSB, the aim of the government was to make the process more transparent. Unfortunately, this backfired, as aspirants levelled serious allegations against the JKSSB for not making the entire selection process foolproof.

Taking cognisance of these reports and the alleged fraud selection process Sinha had last month ordered a time-bound probe into the matter by one of the senior-most bureaucrats. The LG had assured that fresh recruitment would be made after the cancellation of the earlier process if any irregularity was established.

“This is a huge development as during the past regimes such scams were brushed under the carpet in J&K. The decision has not only given a great relief to those candidates who had appeared in the SI exam but to other youth aspiring for jobs through the fair recruitment process,” said Lateef Lone, one of the job aspirants.

More than one lakh candidates had applied for the 1200 SI posts and around 97,000 candidates appeared for the exam on March 27, in 322 exam centres set up in 16 districts.

The results were out on June 4 and aspirants started levelling serious allegations of fraud against the JKSSB as in almost two dozen cases siblings had been selected and got very good marks as well. In a few cases, even the three siblings had qualified for the exam.

Pertinently this was the major recruitment taken up by the J&K government after the abrogation of Article 370.