Farooq Ahmed War was recently appointed assistant director in the Jammu and Kashmir government's hospitality and protocol department. War, a graduate, enjoys a better qualification he is the son-in-law of the chief minister's security officer. Rohit Khajuria was appointed assistant director in the state handloom department without any interview or formal test.

He is a close relative of a former law secretary of the State Government. Vikrant Sharma was directly appointed as protocol officer in the hospitality and protocol department he is also a close relative of a former law secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Government.

Mohammad Yasin Yattoo was directly appointed undersecretary in Secretariat services. No interviews, no examinations. He was public relations officer to the former minister of state, Ali Mohammad Sagar.

The list is endless as irregular appointments have become a norm with the ruling elite of Jammu and Kashmir since the eruption of insurgency. The return of a political government has only accelerated this process of injustice. Jammu and Kashmir government has not recruited any gazetted officer through the public service commission for the last 14 years.

Majority of the recruitments are done directly which snatches a genuine opportunity from those unemployed who are not linked to the power elite.

``The National Conference government has not learnt any lessons from the repercussions of similar policies of nepotism before 1989. Unrest among the youth started with these kinds of injustice which turned into a full fledged militancy,'' said a university researcher, who has worked on the causes of violence in the valley. The fourth class employees are beingappointed by the heads of the departments directly on the instructions of the ministers concerned. And ironically the ministers make no bones about it.

``If I refer 10 or 20 posts to the recruitment board, it will take years to hold interviews and examinations as thousands of unemployed youth apply. So we appoint them directly.'' This was the brazen excuse given by two ministers, Abdul Rahim Rather (rural development) and Choudhry Mohammad Ramzan (forests).

Nepotism doesn't end here. The children of this power elite who get recruited as gazetted officers then get inducted in the administrative services.