Respected Chairman Sahib,
We are writing this letter to you in the hope that you would consider our request; take an important step to assign another day for the aspirants who missed the banking associate examination due to the accumulation of snow on roads.
It’s our responsibility to explain to you why this recruitment is important for all of us and why we failed to reach on time at our designated centres. We are the unfortunate banking aspirants who had applied for the said posts in the year 2018. Shortly after the application process in 2019, we appeared in that unfortunate exam which was scrapped later-on without any prior information on why that happened. Many among us had qualified the preliminary examination but nothing like that was considered and the whole process was scrapped.
Meanwhile, during that time, you were assigned an important role to lead the bank and you appeared in one of national news channels promising that the examination will be held on a fast trial basis with transparency at every level. It took the incumbent recruitment agency a year to announce the fresh dates and finally, the examinations were scheduled for January, without taking into consideration the harsh weather conditions in this month that arises in the valley. During this month the temperature drops to sub-zero, it’s hard to drive thus riskier for students to reach on time for the examination. To assume that the students will reach on time without any relaxation was unfortunate.
On the 3rd of January, we were supposed to make our presence at 9:00 am sharp at our designated examination centres. Since the unexpected snow on that day, life across Kashmir came to a halt, especially in the southern and northern parts of Kashmir where roads were full of snow and the transport on roads was nowhere to be seen. Owing to the slippery roads, the majority of the aspirants were affected by this. Since most of the candidates belong to the remote areas, we would like to add it here that it was a natural calamity and no one should be blamed for the fault and we request you to consider the situation we had to face. It’s pertinent to mention here that one of the aspirants had to travel from a remote area having just Rs. 500 in his pocket. The aspirant had no money to stay in the hotel for a night and hence could not make it to the examination centre on time. There are hundreds of aspirants who had no money to stay inside a hotel for a night owing to the poor conditions.
Despite the efforts, majority of the candidates failed to reach on time, though unfortunate from the aspirant’s side, but the situation that had erupted unexpectedly was not taken into consideration and hence the aspirants missed the golden opportunity. The aspirants begged in front of the authorities at several examination centres but were not allowed to enter and were forced to leave the venue. It’s sad and unfortunate that the officials who had been assigned the job of dealing with the aspirants resorted to force and threatened students at several examination centres. We were astonished to see when we were forced to leave the examination centres without taking part in the examination. Since then, the world has come to an end for us.
We are shattered right now as we have been preparing for this examination for the last two years. It’s important to mention it here, and must serve as an eye-opener for those who are blaming aspirants for not reaching on time.
The aspirants had been calling the officials who are reluctant to accept that students are facing issues while reaching the designated centres. Since you are in charge of the bank and it’s our responsibility to request you to deal with the situation considerately. Students are facing a lot of issues while reaching centres, some are not making it on time while some are unable to cover the half distance. Your judgement in this, what is hoped to be cooperative and a gesture of personal generosity on your part to be much appreciated.
We request you to kindly allow us to appear in the examination. We understand this is a tough decision to take from your end but with this, you are saving the career of hundreds of aspirants.
We hope you will soon announce a new date for all of us who had missed the examination.
The authors are banking associate aspirants who couldn’t make it to the examination centre on time despite their efforts.