JAMMU, Nov 30: More than 5.59 lakh job aspirants are slated to appear in an examination for 4,002 vacancies of police constables in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said on Saturday. The test is scheduled to commence across the Union Territory from Sunday.
A group of youngsters, meanwhile, staged a demonstration here, reiterating their demand for age relaxation and rescheduling of the examination.
“A total of 5,59,135 candidates are scheduled to appear in the exams for 4,002 posts of constables (home department) to be held on December 1, December 8 and December 22,” Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) Chairperson Indu Kanwal Chib said at a meeting here.
The meeting of the civil administration and police department was convened by Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo to take stock of the preparations made by the deputy commissioners to conduct the exams.
Chib said the exams for the posts of constable (executive/armed/SDRF) are going to be held on December 1 at 856 centres across 20 districts, for which 2,62,863 candidates are set to appear, with the maximum number of 54,296 candidates appearing from Jammu district.
Similarly, for the posts of constable (telecommunications), the SSRB chairperson said 1,67,609 candidates are going to appear in the exams to be held on December 8 and 1,28,663 are scheduled to appear in the test for constable (photographer) exams on December 22.
The meeting was informed that for the first time, male and female gazetted officers have been deployed at each centre as “frisking supervisors”, besides ensuring videography of the exams to ensure transparency, an official spokesperson said.
The chief secretary impressed upon the officers to make adequate arrangements in terms of deployment of staff, including observers, supervisors, invigilators and other personnel, for a smooth conduct of the examinations.
He urged the deputy commissioners to visit as many exam centres as possible, besides forming teams under senior officers in the district administration to examine all the centres set up in their districts.
The chief secretary sensitised them to ensure that no untoward incident of copying or malpractice occurs anywhere and that enough security personnel are deployed at each centre in the district, the spokesperson said.
He enquired with them about the arrangements made for the delivery of both sensitive and non-sensitive exam material to the centres.
The chief secretary also enjoined upon them to personally monitor the whole process till the OMR sheets are sent back to the SSRB by the police department, the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, a group of youngsters, who could not apply for the constable posts due to being over-age, staged a demonstration here and raised slogans against the administration for not providing them a level-playing field.
“We had also dreamt of joining the police and serving the nation but were denied the opportunity by the administration, which failed to hold the examination for years. We have given our representation to the lieutenant governor, political parties and officers seeking age relaxations but all our pleas were ignored,” youth leader and social activist Mehran Anjum Mir said.
The protesters reiterated their demand for age relaxation for the posts of constable and sub-inspector, and demanded rescheduling of the constable examination to allow them to compete as well.
The SSRB has issued a notification for the recruitment of 669 sub-inspectors in the Jammu and Kashmir Police department. According to the official schedule, the application process for recruitment will begin on December 3 and conclude on January 2, 2025. (Agencies)
