Tame the bull and get a government job

You may be an MA in English or even an MSc in Mathematics. But degrees are not enough to get you this job that judges candidates solely on the basis of how adept they are in taming the bull.

The Jammu and Kashmir animal husbandry department has decided to screen 37,000 candidates, who have applied for 52 posts of cattle and poultry assistants, on their capability of handling bulls.

The department took the decision to ask candidates to handle bulls after it received a huge number of applications for the posts.

The department had advertised in February and set the eligibility criterion at 10+ 2. The notice further said that candidates should have experience in handling livestock. But the department had no idea that even highly qualified persons would apply for these posts.

“ We need someone who could take care of livestock. But for this job, an MSc Mathematics candidate is competing with an MA English applicant. So we decided that they will be asked to handle bulls,” the department’s deputy director Farooq Ahmad Kaloo said.

“ If they succeed in handling bulls in the practical exams, only then they would be considered for the job,” he added.

Candidates, however, say that there is nothing wrong in applying for the posts. “ I am a graduate and working as a teacher in a private school. The school management provides me Rs. 1,200 as monthly salary. At least as a poultry assistant, I will have a respectable salary and a government job,” Riyaz Ahmad, an applicant from uptown Srinagar, said.

There are over 5.67 lakh unemployed educated men who have registered themselves with different district employment and counselling centres, and there are 4.5 lakh government employees in the state. In 2001-2002, the salary bill of the state was just Rs. 3,500 crore. However, it jumped to Rs. 14,000 crore in 2010- 11.

On March 3, CM Omar Abdullah had told the state assembly that in J&K, a job means ‘ a government job only’. “ Unfortunately, the government is not able to absorb the youth beyond a certain capacity,” he had said.