No fresh appointment under SRO 202, Probation period of old SRO 202 appointees reduced to 2 yrs

Jammu: In a historic and employee friendly move to address the long standing demand of unemployed youth as well as nearly 10,000 old appointees, the Government has decided that no future appointments in the UT of J&K shall be made under SRO-202. Existing employees under SRO 202 will get a major relief as their five year period of probation shall be reduced to the normal probation period i.e. two years only. These decisions were taken in a meeting of the Administrative Council held under the Chairmanship of the Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu.

Speaking at a press conference here today, the Principal Secretary PDD & Information, Mr. Rohit Kansal, who is also the Government spokesperson, said that the decisions will benefit both existing employees and potential recruits as all future appointments including those in the pipeline will be out of the purview of this rule.

Recalling that the government had recently started a special recruitment drive involving 10,000 posts, Mr. Kansal said that for 7052 Class IV posts, a new set of rules call the Jammu and Kashmir Appointment to Class-IV (Special Recruitment) Rules, 2020 had been notified to fast track the recruitment process and make it transparent. These rules too have also been amended and SRO 202 will not be applicable to these appointments.

Regarding the vacancies already referred to recruitment agencies under SRO 202, the spokesperson stated that in all such cases the agencies shall be advised suitably to bring the recruitment out of the purview of SRO 202. This, he said will include all pending cases including those where only referrals to SSB/PSC have been made, where written test has been held but no interview has been conducted, where interview has already been conducted but the result has not been declared and where the selection has been completed but final appointment order has not been issued. Suitable orders and instructions shall be issued to the recruiting agencies by the GAD.

Mr. Kansal said that taking cognizance of the long pending demand of the currently serving employees recruited under SRO 202, it had been decided that five year period of probation as defined in Rule 8 of SRO 202 be reduced to two years. As a consequence, he said that SRO 202 appointees shall now be eligible to get all benefits in fixation of pay, increments and allowances from 1.07.2020 itself. To streamline all future appointments, the Jammu and Kashmir Probationer (Condition of Service, Pay and Allowances) and Fixation of Tenure Rules, 2020 will be notified, he stated.