JAMMU : In a significant move to make the functioning of universities transparent and accountable through transparent procedures and public disclosures, the Jammu and Kashmir government gave nod to the Jammu and Kashmir Public University Bill, 2022 which bring all universities in J&K UT under a uniform rules of governance .
This landmark decision was taken on Saturday by Administrative Council which met under the Chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha and attended by Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor and Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary.
The bill introduced with an aim to address the issues regarding a wide variety of universities in J&K and separate Acts governing each university or group of universities with existing regulations.
The salient features of the current draft includes emphasis on uniformity and flexibility in working of all the higher educational institutions with addition of new provisions to make the functioning of universities transparent and accountable through transparent procedures and public disclosures especially in recruitment to various categories of gazetted and non gazetted posts .
In order to make the recruitment process fully transparent and merit based, screening by the Public Service Commission and reduction in weightage to interview has been proposed for gazetted positions. For non-gazetted positions, it has been proposed to do away with interviews altogether and conduct recruitment through the Service Selection Board. Screening/recruitment by Public Service Commission’s/ Service Selection Boards have been introduced in varying measures by other states like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand etc., reads government handout.