Naib-tehsildar recruitment: Jammu objects to Urdu, Kashmir to quota share

Amid raging controversy on the issue of Urdu designated as compulsory for the recently advertised posts of Naib-Tehsildars in Jammu and Kashmir, top BJP leaders on Thursday met the Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha to urge him to declare Urdu as non-mandatory for the examination for filling up these posts.

The Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JKSSB) issued a notification on 9 June for recruitment of 75 naib tehsildars, with Urdu designated as a compulsory subject. The recruitment notice has come almost simultaneously with the cabinet sub-committee finalising its report after reviewing the existing reservation policy.

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The issue has triggered unrest particularly in the Jammu region where the youth were demanding scrapping of Urdu as a compulsory language.

Leader of the Opposition in the J&K Assembly Sunil Sharma, accompanied by BJP president Sat Sharma, called on Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha and sought his intervention in the issue of naib tehsildar aspirants and urged him to make the working knowledge of Urdu language non-mandatory for Naib Tehsildar examination.

He highlighted that making working knowledge of one language mandatory, given the UT of J&K’s five official languages, violates the constitutional principles of equal opportunity and administrative impartiality, and it creates an unfair barrier, particularly disadvantageous to aspirants from the Jammu Division.

The senior BJP leaders also requested the Lt. Governor for translation of government documents and procedures into all the official languages of J&K UT.

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Vikram Randhawa described the Urdu requirement a “conspiracy to block Jammu youth from securing government jobs”.

The Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) led a protest in Jammu on the issue.

However, Urdu is not an issue with the aspirants in the Kashmir valley where the political leadership has joined others in raising the issue of the contentious reservation policy that has shrunk the space for merit in recruitment to these posts.

Of the 75 posts advertised by the JKSSB, 45 are for the reserved categories and only 30 were open to the general category candidates.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said the report of the cabinet sub-committee on the reservation issue will be examined by the cabinet after it is formally submitted.

Peoples’ Conference president Sajad Lone wrote on X; “Yet another recruitment advertisement is out. And 30 seats for open merit, compared to 45 reserved. If the government is serious about change, they would have waited for the subcommittee report”.

The PDP has also slammed the ruling National Conference on the issue.