Prof. Fraz Ahmed Chauhan
The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has come up with a new recruitment policy as is known by one and all.
The policy provides for: 1.Contractual appointment for a period of seven year. 2.Minimum wages /consolidated pay 3.Appointment at district level. And bla bla bla.
There has been much hue and cry over the policy for quite some time. The youth are against it, the Opposition is against it and a number of stakeholders want to reap the energy generated among youth due to the controversies arising out of it. The anticipation is genuine but a few things need to be considered before rebuffing such policy. I want to highlight some important aspects of the policy vis-a-vis the economic condition of our State. Going through these facts and figures, it seem that this new recruitment policy is the only practical and vivid solution to a number of issues related to the unemployment of a quite a large number of educated youth of Jammu and Kashmir.
Some Facts:
1. There are more than six lakh unemployed graduates, post graduates, M. Phils, Ph. D, professionally trained youth (such as M.B.B.S, B.D.S, I.I.T, B. Tech, B.E, M. Tech, B. Sc. Agriculture, B. Sc. Forestry, B. V. Sc. etc etc) as per reliable data. ( Sources: The Economic Times; Bilal Ahmed Khan. 19th March 2013, International Journal of Educational Research and Technology: ISSN 0976-4089; Department of Employment Jammu and Kashmir). Such a huge, qualified and wandering human resource is un-utilised.
2. A total of 60,646 gazetted and non-gazetted vacancies exist in 36 government departments of the State. In a written reply to a question of MLA Kangan, Mian Altaf, the Chief Minister said that 10,153 posts were vacant in the gazetted cadre and 50,493 posts were vacant in the non-gazetted cadre in the State (1st April, 2015).
3. The budget allocation for the salaries and pension of about 4.5 lakh employees of J and K for the year 2015-16 is Rs 18,445 Cr.
4. The Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, presented a deficit budget Rs.43,543 crore for the year 2015-16, the deficit is of Rs 4,336 Cr.
6. The total financial liability left on the shoulders of the new government by the previous Govt is thousand of crore. More so, the State has witnessed natural disasters and floods during the year leaving it more susceptible to expenditure implications.
7. The financial problem of our State can be gauged from the fact that our government released the DA instalment due in January 2014 in the month of April 2015 ( after 16 months).
8. In 2014-15, the Non Plan Revenue Expenditure (NPRE) consumed Rs. 29,553 crore, of which the Non-Plan Salaries and Pensions at Rs. 18,445 crore constituted 62.4 per cent of total non plan revenue expenditure.
These are some of a number of fragile perspectives of our economic condition which point towards a relook into the existing employment policies and arrive at a holistic, sustainable and plausible one which can take into account some of the many such factors.
Going by the projected points, if about 60,000 youth are given jobs, both at gazetted and non gazetted level on full salary, the net additional burden for first year will be about Rs.2,500 Cr ( average taken as 30,000+) and by no means less than Rs. 2,000 Cr ( average taken as 25,000+). And this will increase by about 20 per cent per year (as per Cosumer Price Index, 2014 and Current rate of increment at 3 per cent). This will have far reaching consequences. By calculation, we have got three options, (1) More money be spent on salary and pensions, that is practically not possible, (2) If somehow manage point 1, the treasuries go dry, (3). No more employment.
The pain and agonies through which our youth are passing through is understandable. But due to little or no private sector in our State and reluctance/lack of opportunity of youth to move out for job in private sector in other states/countries poses a big challenge for the Govt to absorb the educated unemployed youth. Going through statistics, the estimated annual expenditure for 60,000 jobs as per new policy is around Rs. 700 crore per yr, which is far lower than the value calculated for full salary. This seems the only plausible and vivid solution to address unemployment in our State. The State Govt. can however look at few modifications. First; reduction in the total tenure from seven years to five years. Second, payment of atleast basic salary ( this would cost around Rs. 1,000 crore per yr). Third, fast track recruitment under legal, constitutional and just set of rules and regulations. Last but not the least, it is high time that our government encourages private sector. Necessary hurdles in this regard need to be treated / removed.
Conclusion: In such circumstances, if the government has come up with a roadmap to absorb the qualified youth in large numbers, it needs to be taken in a positive perspective. It is a sign of concern of government towards educated youth.
