Srinagar, Mar 23: Even after over five months of their selection, many candidates who were selected as Assistant Professors (APs) in the Higher Education Department are awaiting formal orders and subsequent postings.
The selected candidates have held the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) responsible for a drawn-out delay.
According to the selected candidates, the inordinate delay in issuing the formal orders has begun gnawing at them with many of them facing economic hardships.
“During this academic session, I chose not to apply as a contractual lecturer as I anticipated joining my new job very soon. However, after a close to six months hiatus, I find myself still awaiting an appointment letter,” said a selected candidate. He said that he was grappling with economic issues.
The PSC issued provisional selection lists of APs in several disciplines last October and November. While the candidates selected for the subjects like Philosophy, Economics Anthropology, and English were issued formal orders and even posted at different colleges across Jammu and Kashmir, those selected for the seven subjects – Political Science, Urdu, Hindi, Electronic Science, Botany,
Geology, and Sociology – are still awaiting the formal orders.
The selected candidates said that the PSC invited objections vis-à-vis their selection with the final list and set a five-day deadline for filing them.
“Once the objections are filed and disposed of, the PSC goes ahead with the further process, which includes the verification and issuance of final orders by the Higher Education Department,” they said.
However, according to the selected candidates, the PSC has not yet worked on the objections and forwarded the list for the issuance of final orders to the Higher Education Department.
Additional Secretary PSC, Mushtaq Ahmad told Greater Kashmir that the commission was without a chairperson for the last few months which resulted in the delay.
“Now, following the appointment of a new chairperson, it is expected that all the necessary formalities will be completed soon,” Ahmad said.