*After MCC, question mark over new postings
Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Oct 25: In a major embarrassment to National conference-Congress coalition Government, Governor NN Vohra has raised several queries on the appointments of Public Services Commission (PSC) chairman and six members by the Cabinet for five years term on the eve of announcement of Assembly elections on October 10 and returned the file to General Administration Department (GAD) for reply to the queries.
As PSC Chairman and members hold Constitutional posts, their appointments need consent of the Governor even after appointments are cleared by the Cabinet.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Raj Bhawan has sought Vigilance clearance, Annual Performance Report (APRs), integrity certificates, property statements etc for all seven new appointees, which had not been attached along with the file sent to the Governor for approval on October 12 i.e. two days after the Cabinet unanimously cleared the appointments in its meeting held in Srinagar, the summer capital of the State, under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
A top Government official admitted to the Excelsior that the queries raised by the Raj Bhawan while returning the file of PSC appointments to the GAD were “very time consuming” and with Model Code of Conduct (MCC) coming into force this afternoon in the wake of Election Commission of India’s announcement for Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, a big question mark has been raised over the appointments.
“It will take a lot of time by the different Departments to answer the queries raised by the Raj Bhawan and with MCC already enforced, the appointments could run into trouble though they had been cleared by the Cabinet well before announcement of the elections,” sources said.
Confirming that the file has been returned by the Raj Bhawan, Government sources said the GAD, which is held by the Chief Minister himself, will have to collect all details sought by the Governor from different Departments in respect of new appointees.
“The file then will be send again to the Raj Bhawan but it was up to the Governor whether he would approve seven very important appointments for next five years when the Model Code of Conduct was in force and new Government was scheduled to take over hardly in the next about couple of months,” sources said.
If the new appointees are unable to take over by the middle of November, the PSC will be rendered defunct as lone member KB Jandial will also complete his five years term by then. Presently, Jandial was lone member in the PSC since September 10 when the Commission Chairman SL Bhat had retired.
The Cabinet had on October 10 appointed Khurshid Ganaie, Financial Commissioner-cum-Secretary Industries and Commerce as new PSC Chairman for a term of five years and six members including Wali Mohammad Bhat, Retired DG Accounts and Treasuries, PL Lachotra, Retired DG Statistics and Planning and Mukerjeet Sharma, IFS, ex-Director Soil Conservation, all three from Jammu, Sheikh Mushtaq, former Secretary, Higher Education Department, Dr Tejit Singh, Retired HoD Ophthalmology and Dr Farooq Kallu, Retired Director, Animal Husbandry Department, all three from Kashmir.
Sources said the appointments had otherwise also been marred into controversy as NC-Congress had publicly announced in the Co-ordination Committee that they had shared three posts each for the PSC members, which indirectly means that the appointees had “political affiliation”, which was “very serious issue” as the body had to select all gazetted officers including officers for Civil Services.
Moreover, the appointments had been made for a term of five years, the tenure of PSC chairman and members. While some posts in the PSC were lying vacant for several months together, the Government choose to keep them vacant and filled up them only when it had become clear that the Assembly elections were about to be announced by the Election Commission in the next few days.
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