In a significant move that will provide relief to hundreds, if not thousands of youth, the J&K government has set up a committee to reexamine the controversial ‘new job policy’ that was announced by the former PDP-BJP government in 2015. According to an order of the General Administration Department, a committee has been set up to examine the Jammu and Kashmir Special Recruitment Rules, 2015 comprising of four members. To be headed by the chief secretary B V R Subrahmanyam, the committee will examine various issues related to the SRO-202 which was hugely unpopular and discriminatory and went against the Supreme Court guidelines that call for equal pay for equal work. According to the order, the terms of reference of the committee shall be to examine the Jammu and Kashmir Special Recruitment Rules, 2015, notified vide SRO-202 of 2015 dated 30.06.2015, and its implications on the job structure in government as well as financial implications. The committee has been tasked to “suggest a comprehensive approach, as necessary.” There is no denying that the SRO-202, commonly known as new job policy, was issued in a sense of complete disregard to the achievement of educated youth who burn midnight oil to complete their educational degrees and then toil hard for passing the exams in order to qualify for working in the government. Under the SRO 202, during the period of first five years, the government appointees were kept in minimum scale of pay along with the grade pay applicable to the post against which they are appointed. It was only after the completion of the fixed five-year probation period that the appointees were entitled to fixation of pay in the time-scale of pay applicable to the post against which they were appointed. Not only was the policy an example of brazen violation of the apex court’s guidelines by the official machinery, it also violated the basic human rights of the new appointees. Despite experts, society at large and government job aspirants urging the previous government to scrap the policy, it was implemented nevertheless, prompting many to term it as a slaughter of the abilities of the talented youth. The law commission last December had recommended reduction in probation period from five to two years under SRO-202. Now that the CS has been tasked to hammer out a solution, it is hoped that he, and the administration at large, will adopt a pragmatic approach so that this dual recruitment policy is recalibrated to reflect the aspirations of JK’s youth.