Fire and Emergency Service Aspirants Hail Termination of 103 Firemen in 2020 Recruitment Scam | Kashmir Life

SRINAGAR: Fire and Emergency Services aspirants on Thursday welcomed the Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to terminate the services of 103 firemen appointed through the 2020 recruitment process, which was found to be fraudulent, saying the move had restored their faith in merit-based selection.

Addressing reporters at Srinagar, the aspirants thanked Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and BJP leader Ravindra Raina for supporting action against the tainted recruitment and called for a review of additional evidence they had submitted in the case.

The government recently terminated the services of 103 firemen in the Fire and Emergency Services Department after a probe committee concluded that the 2020 recruitment process was marred by serious irregularities, including alleged question paper leakage. The aspirants said the termination order fulfilled assurances given to them earlier by the Lieutenant Governor during a meeting at Lok Bhavan.

They said they had been raising objections to the selection process since the provisional list was issued in 2020 and had staged protests in Srinagar and Jammu over the past several years. According to them, as many as 692 candidates were affected by the alleged irregularities. The aspirants claimed they were meritorious candidates who had qualified physical tests more than once and alleged that their objections were ignored at the time.

The group said the probe committee had recorded paper leakage as a major issue in the recruitment, and although all evidence had not yet been made public, the government’s decision reflected acceptance of the inquiry findings. They credited advocate Abhinav Sharma for pursuing the matter and thanked the media and Kothibagh Police for their support during protests, while urging political leaders to back their demand for transparent and fair recruitment in future.