Omar Abdullah-Led NC Govt In Jammu Kashmir Distributed 25,000 Jobs Among Relatives And Workers, Alleges PDP

Omar Abdullah-Led NC Govt In Jammu Kashmir Distributed 25,000 Jobs Among Relatives And Workers, Alleges PDP

Srinagar: Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Tuesday demanded a probe into what is called “distribution” of government jobs in Jammu and Kashmir by the National Conference led government through outsourcing.

PDP Youth leader Zuhaib Mir alleged that the National Conference government has distributed 25000 jobs to relatives and workers in the last 25 months of their rule.

“These jobs were given without any advertisement and notification. The eligibility criteria for these jobs is one should have been either a relative of a NC leader, his workers or bribe. Youth are unemployed but they don't have any information about these jobs. If we remain silent, the government will distribute 75000 jobs in its remaining three years, and then claim it has fulfilled the promise of 1 lakh jobs,” he said.

"PDP leader Zuhaib Mir said that the jobs were given without any advertisement notification to the blue-eyed candidates."

Mir and other PDP leaders also staged a protest in Srinagar in which they chanted slogans against the government.

The Opposition demanded a probe into the outsourcing of these jobs. “We are requesting investigating agencies to conduct a proper probe into this because this is an outsourcing scandal which the government has perpetrated on the youth of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. There was no advertisement, it was done through the backdoor,” he said.

Quoting Sakina Itoo, the Jammu and Kashmir Health and Education minister, Mir said that she has given 6000 jobs in the health department.

Khursheed Alam, PDP general secretary and former MLC, said the only achievement of Omar Abdullah-led government as it has only “has snatched jobs from the eligible youth and distributed these through outsourcing to its workers. They have systematised corruption,” he said.

Earlier this week, the main opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in Jammu and Kashmir, said that the government must have used transparent and fair recruitment practices in these jobs. “We will launch a campaign against the government for outsourcing these jobs,” BJP leader and Leader of Opposition Sunil Sharma said.

The Jammu and Kashmir government and the LG administration is reported to have outsourced more than 25000 jobs of sanitation and security of government hospitals, data entry operators, floriculture helpers and in other 27 departments. These contractual and temporary appointments are for a year or extendable and have been hired through more than 200 private companies which are based in Jammu and Kashmir, Gujarat, UP and New Delhi.

In response to the opposition attack, minister Sakina Itoo earlier defended the outsourcing, saying that the previous government, referring to the PDP and BJP coalition, started this system in Jammu and Kashmir.

Itoo said that the government has raised the issue of outsourcing with the central government and urged it to provide funds for regular employment rather than for outsourcing.

She said that the government is ready to face the probe in these allegations by the opposition and urged the opposition parties not to politicise the jobs issues.