Employment scam: J&K Governor urged to name BJP, PDP leaders

Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik has now accused the former PDP-BJP coalition government of an employment scam. Sharply reacting to his allegations, both the parties have urged Malik to make public the names of politicians and bureaucrats involved in the “backdoor appointments” instead of "defaming” the institutions in the media.

This is the second major scam that has been exposed by the Governor after assuming charge on August 23. On Saturday, Malik had cancelled the contract with Anil Ambani’s Reliance General Insurance Limited to provide health insurance cover to about 4 lakh state government employees and ordered a Vigilance probe into the alleged scam.

The new media savvy Governor of the troubled state during an interview to Times Now on October 27, dropped a bombshell that as many as 582 candidates recruited by the Jammu and Kashmir Bank were replaced with the political appointees, recommended by the leaders from every constituency under PDP-BJP coalition government led by Mehbooba Mufti.

In a damning indictment of the State Public Services Commission, Malik went on to add that a youth was selected for the Kashmir Administrative Services without appearing for the examination.

“Youth with terrorist background were recruited. Some of the recruited teachers were preaching fundamentalism in the schools,” he told Navika Kumar during the interview, maintaining that the previous government was soft on militants and stone-pelters. “There were instances where government officials were found pelting stones while returning home from offices and taking ₹500 from the separatists.”

When interrupted by the interviewer that the BJP too was part of the coalition government when such glaring irregularities took place, Malik said it was for the BJP to reply to the allegations.

Refuting the allegations, BJP state chief spokesperson, Sunil Sethi, told the National Herald : “If the Governor has some facts with him, he should disclose the names of the persons at whose behest illegal appointments were made. Otherwise, such statements only mislead the people and create confusion. Let him hold an inquiry.”

“We’re very sure that none of our leaders was involved in the illegal appointments,” he claimed, adding that “if any of the BJP leader is found guilty, we’ll take strict action against him.”

Asked if the state BJP has approached Raj Bhawan over allegations, he said: “We have discussed it within the party. The steps to be taken are being discussed and these steps would be taken at the appropriate level.”

Senior PDP leader and former minister Naeem Akhtar has regretted that the Governor was making such remarks in media without verifying facts. “It would be advisable for the Governor to first ask his accountability apparatus to take action and establish guilt before going to the media,” said the senior PDP leader.

“There is a campaign at the national level to defame Kashmiris because of the suspicion of their loyalties to the country. But unfortunately, the present Governor has not been addressing that crisis, instead his comments have most often resulted in further defaming the people of Kashmir,” Akhtar added.

Jammu and Kashmir National Panthers Party has demanded a CBI probe into all appointments made during the previous PDP-BJP rule, claiming that “several thousand blue-eyed candidates” were appointed in government services in violation of rules.

Harsh Dev Singh, chairman of the party, further alleged that “several thousand special police officers were appointed in Police Department through backdoor without following any selection procedure in 2017 after the centre had sanctioned 10,000 posts for the state.”

Former J&K Finance Minister and PDP MLA from Rajpora constituency, Haseeb A Drabu took to twitter, demanding the names of the political leaders who got the recruitment list changed as claimed by the Governor.

“J&K Governor has made a startling revelation: J&K Bank's Relationship Executive recruitment list of 582 was changed by ‘political leaders’. Please name the political leaders who got it done. When did it happen? How was it done? This is beyond shocking! Unbelievable!” said Drabu.

“There is nothing shocking in what the governor has revealed. We all know what is going on here. Who gets loan, who get jobs, and how they get it and all that. And it won’t stop, we all know it as well,” Nasir A Ganai, a senior Srinagar based journalist said. “Instead of saying the obvious, the Governor should name former Ministers, bureaucrats involved in this latest job recruitment scam rather than using ‘Corruption hatao Kashmir bachao’ as a political slogan.”