Over 3,00,000 aspirants for 12,000 state government jobs will write their recruitment test Tuesday and Saturday. For the first two years, the selected candidates will get an average of just Rs 3,000 per month.

“Two lakh candidates are appearing for test being conducted by us. On September 21, another one lakh candidates will be sitting for another recruitment test being held for filling up post of teachers, laboratory assistants, forest guards and accounts assistants,” Shagufta Parveen, chairperson of the Jammu and Kashmir state service selection board (SSB) said here.

Parveen also said extensive arrangements have been made for the smooth conduct of the recruitment test and she was personally supervising the entire exercise.

On why the SSB doesn’t allow candidates to take away question papers or carbon copies of their answer sheets at the end of the test, the chairperson said: “Any candidate can approach the SSB later with an RTI application to get a copy of his answer sheet to satisfy himself or herself about the fairness of the evaluation process.”

When asked about many candidates who are to write the test September 21 complaining about not receiving their roll number slips, the SSB chairperson said these had already been dispatched to their addresses and those who haven’t received them so far can download it from the SSB website.

Under its new recruitment policy, those employed in state government’s non-gazetted service will  draw only half the basic pay for the first two years and 75 per cent of the basic pay for another three years. Also, the selected candidates would draw an average of just Rs 3,000 for the first two years and Rs 5,250 for the next three years. After completion of five years, the selected candidates will be put in the regular pay bands. No pension benefits are now available to people selected for state government service under the new recruitment policy.