jammu mar 10 amid protests over hiring of a blacklisted company for conducting recruitment examinations the jammu and kashmir services selection board jkssb chairman rajesh sharma on friday assured the youth that there will be no compromise on transparency and meritcautioning the job seekers against certain elements trying to malign the process of recruitment by the jkssb sharma said the board is aware of their concerns and all efforts will be made to conduct exams in a fair transparent and secure manner do not pay heed to rumour mongers and those with ulterior motives who are only here to disrupt the processes he said while addressing a press conference here todaysharma categorically said there would be no compromise on transparency and merityouths ability and merit will be respected and strict action will be taken against all those elements who are trying to harm the future of meritorious aspirants he addedsharma said the particular agency is already conducting exams across the country and at the centreciting various examples he said it aptech has been and is executing prime projects in nta cbse 2023 and other government bodies and has successfully completed many cbt based examinations like ugc net 2020 2021 jnu entrance examination jnuee 2021 delhi university entrance test duet 2019 2020 2021 wherein 52 lakh candidates have participated he said adding the agency also conducted income tax 2022 rpf jhansi 2022 railway vadodara 2022 examsabout hiring of aptech limited jkssb chairperson said the agency is not blacklisted as on date though it was blacklisted in uttar pradesh in may 2019 for a period of three years that expired in may 2022the agency has qualified the parameters prescribed for tendering and was the highest bidder on qualitycumcost based selection qcbs mode there are specific rules provided in general financial rules 2017 of goi to deal with debarment blacklisting he saidi would like to clarify that blacklisting is a restrictive term valid for a period he said and added that it has to be distinguished from disbanding ie permanent blacklistingsaying protests seem to be motivated to derail the functioning of the board he said it is not that one or the other person will decide blacklisting let the court give judgement it cannot be decided by a few on a road or in a rotarythese persons levelling unsubstantiated allegations have clear ulterior motives he claimedas far as the allegation against the recruitment agency is concerned the matter is subjudice and the high court will take a decision in the matter the issue will be settled by the law and not by sloganeering the instant protests seem to be an attempt to influence the high court sharma saidjkssb chairman sharma reiterated that we the board are committed to conduct exams including those scheduled from march 16 with the highest degree of securityour mission is to uphold the sanctity of the recruitment process he underscored