Open Merit Candidates Cry Foul as Reserved Categories Dominate J&K Job Vacancies
Open Merit youth stunned as 360 out of 600 posts vanish into reservations.
The reservation dispute in Jammu and Kashmir has reached a boiling point after the Finance Department, through the J&K Services Selection Board, released a notification for 600 Accounts Assistant positions in which only 240 posts—exactly 40%—have been earmarked for the Open Merit (OM) category, leaving the majority of vacancies under various reserved quotas.
Of the total 600 posts, a substantial 360 have been distributed among reserved segments: 48 for Scheduled Castes, 60 each for Scheduled Tribe-1 and Scheduled Tribe-2, 48 for Other Backward Classes, 24 for residents of Areas Adjoining the Line of Control/International Border (ALC/IB), 60 for Residents of Backward Areas (RBA), and another 60 for the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS), reflecting the cumulative impact of multiple amendments to reservation rules in recent years.
Open Merit aspirants have voiced deep frustration, emphasizing that the effective share for unreserved candidates is even lower than 40% because candidates from all reserved categories can also compete in the Open Merit pool if they secure higher marks, thereby displacing general-category youth who rely solely on merit for selection.
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Sahil Parray, a leading spokesperson for Open Merit aspirants, condemned the policy as “systematic exclusion disguised as welfare,” stating that repeated recruitment notifications are pushing talented youth from the general category into depression and hopelessness while opportunities are increasingly allocated on the basis of caste and regional certificates rather than academic excellence and performance.
The controversy has been further fueled by the steady expansion of reserved categories since the reorganization of the former state into a Union Territory in 2019, with several new communities being added to the beneficiary lists, resulting in a significant contraction of opportunities for Open Merit candidates and reigniting demands for a comprehensive review of the entire reservation framework in Jammu and Kashmir.
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