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3 min readSrinagarJun 29, 2026 05:30 AM IST
Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah with his advisor Nasir Aslam Wani (to his immediate left). (Photo: Nasir Aslam Wani/ Facebook)
After the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) accused it of carrying out “backdoor appointments” by “outsourcing” 25,000 jobs, the National Conference-led Jammu and Kashmir government has hit back, rejecting the allegation and accusing the Opposition party of “spreading misinformation”.
Chief Minister’s Adviser Nasir Aslam Wani, Health and Education Minister Sakina Itoo and Agriculture Minister Javid Dar addressed a press conference on Sunday morning on the issue.
“Many misconceptions have been spread regarding our government’s employment policy,” Wani said, adding, “It is our duty to clear these misunderstandings because it is our responsibility to ensure that the public receives the correct information.”
While rejecting the allegations, Wani said the outsourcing of jobs was a legacy of the PDP-BJP government between 2015 and 2018. “Just as they left us with the consequences of the abrogation of Article 370, the loss of statehood, and the division of the erstwhile state…, they also left behind this outsourcing system,” he said.
“The entire outsourcing framework had been put in place between 2015 and 2018, and all the appointments now being questioned were initiated before the 2024 elections (when the current government came to power). The same process has simply continued,” Wani added.
PDP president and former CM Mehbooba Mufti had earlier questioned the government, asking why, despite having a Public Service Commission (PSC), a Service Selection Board (SSB), and a Departmental Board, there was a need to outsource government jobs to contractors. She also accused the government of hiring agencies from outside J&K and giving these contracts to politically connected people.
Responding to Mufti’s allegations, Sakina Itoo defended the outsourcing of jobs as a “short-term administrative necessity”.
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“Outsourced personnel are engaged over and above the sanctioned strength of any department,” Itoo said, adding, “The (outsourcing) agencies are selected through the GeM (Government e-Marketplace) portal using a transparent tendering process.”
She said renewals and extensions of outsourcing agencies were “merely a continuation of a policy inherited from previous governments”.
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