Govt shows door to corrupt, deadwood

Addressing a news conference here Wednesday, Minister for Education and the chief spokesman of the government said 25 of them were involved in trap cases by different anti-graft bodies, 11 had cases of disproportionate assets and 27 others have miscellaneous cases against them.

Akhtar said a committee headed by Chief Secretary, Muhammad Iqbal Khanday and comprising of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Bharat Bushan Vyas, Principal Secretary Home Piyush Goyal, Commissioner Secretary General Administration Department (GAD), Gazanfar Ali and Secretary Law, Muhammad Ashraf Mir had taken the decision to clear the “deadwood” after elaborate findings.

He said this was not something new and was part of the existing clause of J&K Civil Services Rules (JKCSR) as per which the government had to assess the performance of an officer and official after they complete 48 years of age or 22 years of service.

Akhtar said this was not a step in isolation but a first shot at clearing the “deadwood” and punishing the corrupt.

“More is coming and it is going to be a permanent provision as per the JKCSR,” he said.

Akhtar said the performance review of the civil servants would now be a permanent and regular feature in administration and the services of the officers and officials whose performance was not up to the mark or who had integrity issues would be dispensed with.

He said the government would also strengthen the State Accountability Commission (SAC) to ensure transparency at political levels.

“The political pressures in recruitments have already ended and backdoor has completely been sealed,” Akhtar said.

On why hadn’t government taken any action against the corrupt officers who were now part of the Peoples Democratic Party after retiring from services or quitting government jobs, he said no one was above the law.

“Nobody henceforth is safe,” Akhtar said.

On a question why government had not caught any “big fish” and only managed “small catch” in its drive against the “corrupt” and “deadwood”, he said government could only take action against people who had been found involved in corrupt activities.

He also played down the assertion that the government had not laid its hands on any police officer saying five people from the Home department including some head constables were also among the 63 people shown the door.

Akhtar read the names, designation and departments of most of the civil servants before winding up the news conference.

The 63 civil servants who have been dismissed from services include three – Dr Manoj Bhagat, who is attached with Directorate of Health Services, Jammu; Dr. Riyaz Ahmad Dar, Medical Officer, Medical Supplies Corporation J&K; Dr Fayaz Ahmad Banday, Medical Officer Public Health Center Surasyar – from the Health department.

Five officials from General Administration Department (GAD) including four KAS officers – Joint Registrar, Handicrafts, Abdul Rashid Bhat, Secretary State Commission for Women, Muhammad Yousuf Bhat; Additional Secretary School Welfare, Babu Ram and Bhumesh Sharma who was attached with GAD – and Director General, Libraries and Research, J&K, Shamim Ahmad Laherwal were also dismissed.

In the School Education department, four persons including Incharge Head Assistant attached with Boys Higher Secondary School, Batamaloo, Srinagar, Muhammad Ashraf Reshi; Incharge Principal DIET, Poonch, Tarsem Lal, Senior Assistant DIET Poonch, Mumtaz Hussain Bhat and Senior Assistant attached with Government Higher Secondary School Amira Kadal, Arifa Parveen were shown door.

Patwari, tehsil Office, Hamirpur, Niabat Khour, Balwan Singh; Incharge Naib Tehsildar, Peeri, Baj Singh; Patwari Halqa, Nardi, Mera Mandrian, Akhnoor, Padam Dev Sharma; Tehsildar, Aripal Tral, Altaf Ahmad Mistri; Girdawar attached with Tehsil Office Thanamandi, Muhammad Iqbal; incharge Head Assistant, Deputy Commissioner’s office, Budgam, Ghulam Mehdi Pandit; Incharge Field Inspector, Tehsil Office, Bishnah, Ramesh Chander; Naib Tehsildar, Katra, Gian Chand; Patwari Halqa attached with Sub District Magistrate, Mahore, Krishan Lal; Incharge Tehsildar attached with Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Muhammad Bashir Rather; Patwari Halqa Kangan, Abdul Majid Wani; Incharge Tehsildar, Balakote Poonch, Muhammad Bashir; Incharge Naib Tehsildar, Jammu, Fida Hussain; Naib Tehsildar Divisional Commissioner Officer, Jammu, Sher Singh are the officials dismissed in Revenue department.

In the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department, Incharge TSO, Gool, Tariq Ahmad Ganie; Junior Assistant, AD Office, Trade and Stores, Jammu, Ghulam Mohuiddin, Incharge TSO, CA&PD Darhal, Rajouri, Shabir Ahmad Magray; Incharge Assistant Director, CA&PD, Kathua, Tinder Pal Singh were shown the door.

Chief Accounts Officer, Directorate of Education, Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad Baba and Accountant attached with Directorate of Accounts and Treasuries, Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan were dismissed.

The government also dismissed five officials of the Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control including AEE, I&FC Sub Division, Banihal, Javaid Iqbal Shah; JE, PHE Division Bandipora, Parvez Ahmad Shah; Incharge Chief Engineer, CVPP Ltd, Jammu, K K Gupta; Incharge Chief Engineer, PHE Jammu, Prem Nath and Incharge Executive Engineer, Hydraulic Division Ramban, Girdhari Lal.

In the Home department, officials shown the door are Assistant Sub Inspector, Police Station Nagrota, Jammu, Ranjit Singh; Head Constable, Railways Wingh, J&K Police, Feroz Ahmad Najar; ASI attached with DPL Ganderbal, Abdul Kabir; SHO Manwal, Railway Station Katra, Ghulam Hassan Kamal and Head Constable, Anti Hijacking Jammu, Amar Pal Singh.

The government also dismissed two officials of the Power Development Department (PDD), helper or meter reader, EM&RE Sub Division Bari Brahamana, Jammu, Basudev Singh and Incharge AEE, Estates Division Jammu, Fareed Ahmad Tak.

In the PWD (R&B) department, the government dismissed three officials – Executive Engineer attached with Chief Engineer, PWD (R&B), Jammiu, Sher Muhammad Khan; Incharge AEE, Sub Division Bhaderwah, Ikhlaq Hussain; Incharge Executive Engineer on deputation to the Higher Education, Muhammad Shafi Bhat.

Deputy Forester, Urban Forestry Division, Srinagar, Tariq Irshad Handoo and Incharge Divisional Manager, State Forest Corporation, Division Zangili, Riyaz Anwar Masoodi of the Forests department were also dismissed from the services.

In the Rural Development Department, Project Officer, DRDA, IWMP Bandipora, Abdul Hamid Wani; VLW, Panchayat Town, Block Ghat, Doda, Parshotam Kumar Sharma; Executive Engineer attached with Directorate of Rural Development Department, Kashmir, Ghulam Nabi Dar and JE, Block Office, Thanamandi, Khursheed Ahmad were shown the door.

Chief Town Planner, Jammu Development Authority, Hamid Wani of the Housing and Urban Development Department and Additional Provident Fund Commissioner, Divisional Provident Fund Office, Jammu, Kamal Mahindru of the Labour and Employment department were also dismissed.

The government also dismissed employees of the urban local bodies and municipal bodies including Incharge Executive Officer, Abdul Rashid Shah; Incharge Executive Officer, Ravi Kumar Sharma; Chief Enforcement Officer, Satish Khajuria and former Executive Officer, ULB, Lateef Ahmad of the Housing and Urban Development Department.

The employees of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and boards were also dismissed.

The Booking Manager of the SRTC, Deepak Sharma and MD SRTC, Jagmohan Singh Tandon of the Transport department were dismissed as were DGM, JKPCC, Suresh Kumar Rekhi and Assistant Manager, JKPCC, Muhammad Shafi Shah.

The process to dismiss corrupt officials was first started when Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was heading the PDP-Congress coalition government in the State after 2002.

The exercise, however, came to abrupt halt after action was taken against some lower-rung officials.

In 2011, the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also constituted a panel to restart the exercise.

The government then constituted a high-level committee headed by then Chief Secretary Madhav Lal and comprising Principal Secretary Home B R Sharma and Commissioner-Secretary GAD, M S Khan as its members.

However, the process did not pick up.

Earlier this year, Mufti had described corruption as major challenge the State was facing.

In 2014, the government had revealed that 600 corruption cases had been registered against various officials in the State.

It disclosed that 304 such cases were pending before State Vigilance Organization and the Crime Branch.

As per government data, graft cases are registered against several IAS and KAS officers, Engineers, Directors, Assistant Directors, Managers, Enforcement Officers, Ward Officers, Tehsildars, Supervisors, Police officers, Block Development Officers, storekeepers  and others.