High Court stays new recruitment policy: Students vow to continue protesting till government withdraws decision

High Court stays new recruitment policy Students vow to continue protesting till government withdraws decisionArchit Watts
Tribune News Service

Kashmir/Jammu, November 6
The Jammu and Kashmir High Court, observing that the state’s new recruitment policy “exploits human talent”, has stayed the government order while it asked the state to file objections within three weeks.

Advocate Jahangir Ganie said Justice Hasnain Masoodi yesterday heard the writ petition filed by him on behalf of his client Ghulam Nabi Dar of Hazrtbal against the state.

“Prima facie, the court observed that that the new job policy announced by the government exploits the human talent and as such put the orders on this direction by the government in abeyance,” advocate Jahangir said.

Even as the High Court in Srinagar has stayed the implementation of the new recruitment policy for three weeks, the agitating students vowed to continue their protest till the state government revoked the “controversial” policy.

Terming it an anti-youth policy, a number of student unions in Jammu region have decided to gherao the Secretariat on November 9, when the Darbar will open here after a gap of six months.

“We welcome the move of the high court, but this is not the final decision. We demand that before the court pronounces its decision, the state government should revoke this policy in the larger interests of the youth of the state,” said Suresh Ajay Magotra, chairman of the Youth of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.

“We have been fighting against this anti-youth policy for the last one week and will definitely go to the Secretariat on November 9, where we will show black flags to the ministers and MLAs of the ruling NC-Congress government. A number of student unions are supporting us for this purpose,” he added.

The local unit of the ABVP has also expressed similar views. “The stay on the recruitment policy shows that it is anti-youth, anti-state and hence ill-directed,” ABVP leader Pawan Sharma said.

“We are not going to budge from our stand till the government itself does not revoke this policy. The ‘Secretariat Chalo’ call still stands and we will go there on the first day of the Darbar opening to express our resentment against the state government,” added Sharma.

The youth wing of the National Panthers Party is also continuing their protest in all colleges and universities in the region.

Pushpinder Manhas, leader of the youth wing of the National Panthers Party, said: “We will further intensify our agitation. For the past few days, our activists are staging protest demonstrations at various levels across the state and will continue with it till this policy gets revoked.”

THE ‘ANTI-YOUTH’ POLICY

• Under the new recruitment policy, the fresh recruits (non-gazetted) will only get 50 per cent of the basic pay for the first two years and 75 per cent for the next three years, without any allowances..
• For the past one week, students have been protesting against the new policy, terming it as anti-youth.
• Ghulam Nabi Dar, a resident of Hazratbal, filed a petition in the High Court against the policy.