Srinagar: Job aspirants from Kashmir, who have qualified Preliminary examination for the probationary officer (PO) posts of Jammu Kashmir Bank Wednesday accused some Kashmir media houses of crossing the limits of ‘sycophancy’ by black listing their protest against the Bank and its Chairman.
“We never knew, some media houses including some web portals are dancing on the tunes of Jammu Kashmir Bank and they didn’t cover our protest that was against the ‘surrender’ of the Bank Chairman before Bhartiya Janata Party,” the aspirants told news agency CNS.
Yesterday, at Press Enclave Srinagar, these aspirants staged a protest against Jammu Kashmir Bank’s declaration of uniform cutoff for whole state of Jammu and Kashmir. These aspirants mocked at JK Bank for conducting Preliminary examination which according to them turned out to be useless process after Banks decision to announce a uniform cutoff of 40 marks across the state.
In October 2018, J&K Bank had advertised for 250 vacancies of POs and a three-phase recruitment process. According to the bank’s notification, an initial preliminary examination is to be followed by the mains, and finally the interview round. Last week, J&K Bank declared the result of preliminary exams and fixed district-wise cutoff marks to shortlist candidates eligible for the mains examination.
They had alleged that JK Bank Chairman buckled under pressure from the Governor who in turn appeased BJP and directed Bank to revisit its decision on cut off. They said that revised cutoff now has left everyone including them angry.
A delegation of aspirants lamented that unlike Jammu newspapers who support candidates from Jammu region, the media houses in Kashmir are supporting Jammu Kashmir Bank that is at fault and violated its own notification under political pressure.
“We people are not getting support like Jammu aspirants get from their media houses. We were shocked to know that JK Bank had asked major newspapers from Kashmir Valley not to highlight our protest and they obliged. This is really shocking. What as a society we can expect from these media houses who for few bucks buckle under pressure and choke the voice of helpless,” they said.
The aspirants expressed surprise over what they called ‘surrendering’ tweets from Jammu Kashmir Bank. They said Bank Chairman was so fear stricken after receiving call from the Governor that instead of issuing a formal order, he informed about the uniform cut off through his tweets. “When aspirants from Kashmir appeared for the post of Sub-Inspectors and even in teacher recruitment process, our cut off was very high at that time and we didn’t protest like Jammu aspirants but this time they took advantage of situation and used all machinery to pressurize Jammu Kashmir Bank that obliged without any resistance and declared uniform cutoff. An independent institution like JK Bank first buckling under pressure from the BJP and then asking newspapers not to highlight our genuine protest is really shameful. We will approach court to highlight the inefficiency and helplessness of JK Bank Chairman if the decision is not rolled back,” they told CNS.
