‘Appointments scam’ in KVIB during PDP-BJP Govt
Wrongdoers remain unexposed due to dilly-dallying approach
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 1: In a testimony of inept handling of serious issues, the Government is giving one after another extension to a panel of bureaucrats assigned the task of conducting in-depth enquiry into ‘appointments scam’ in the Jammu and Kashmir Khadi Village and Industries Board (KVIB), which came to the fore during the PDP-BJP Coalition Government in the State. Due to this, the wrongdoers have remained unexposed and unpunished despite lapse of several months.
The appointments made by the J&K KVIB against various posts came under question after some close relatives of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was running the Government with BJP in the State, figured in the selection list issued early this year.
Initially the then PDP-BJP Government maintained criminal silence over the controversial selections but following much hue and cry by the Opposition parties the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on February 25, 2018 announced that the high-level enquiry will be conducted into what she described ‘procedural inadequacies’ in the selection process of Khadi and Village Industries Board.
However, formal order in this regard was issued on March 19, 2018 when General Administration Department constituted a committee headed by R K Goyal, Principal Secretary to the Government, Home Department and comprising of two more IAS officers namely Dr Pawan Kotwal and Farooq Ahmad Shah.
The mandate of the committee was to enquire into the complaints relating to the alleged unfair selections made by the Board; determine as to whether proper procedure as laid down in the relevant rules has been followed; enquire into the methodology in selecting the agency for setting the question and evaluation process etc and ascertain whether any deviation has been made in the selection process from advertising the posts to the release of selection list.
Vide this order, the committee of bureaucrats was supposed to submit report within one month-by April 19, 2018. However, the enquiry committee failed to complete the assigned task within the specified time-frame, which compelled the Government to issue order No.733-GAD dated April 27, 2018 whereby time-frame of one more month was given to the enquiry committee.
However, the committee again failed to meet the deadline of May 27, 2018 on the pretext of awaiting certain documents from the Khadi Village and Industries Board for conclusion of enquiry.
Thereafter, neither the General Administration Department asked the enquiry committee to submit its report nor the latter felt it imperative to accomplish the assigned task as such the matter remained non-priority for all the concerned authorities for over four months.
Now, the General Administration Department has again issued an order dated September 28, 2018 mentioning that the term for finalizing the report of the enquiry committee constituted to look into selections made by the J&K Khadi Village and Industries Board against various posts is further extended up to October 31, 2018.
However, one after another extension has not been justified by the General Administration Department, which otherwise was imperative to highlight the status of enquiry into the controversial selections.
What wonders the enquiry committee will do within next one month which it could not do from May 27, 2018 to September 28, 2018? sources asked, adding “it seems that no seriousness is being shown to conclude the enquiry and expose the wrongdoers”.
“All the record pertaining to the selections is available either with the KVIB or the private agency engaged for making selections as such delay of several months in completion of enquiry cannot be justified in any way”, sources said.
As per the sources privy to the exercise conducted by the enquiry committee, procedural inadequacies with some oblique motives have been noticed in the selection process. Moreover, it has been noticed that the process followed by the hired agency was not in consonance with the procedure being adopted by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board for selection against similar posts.
It has also come to the fore that posts of Law Officer, Publicity Officer, Field Publicity Officer and of other ranks were also advertized by the KVIB vide Advertisement Notice No. KVIB/02 of 2013 dated April 26, 2013 and written test for these posts was conducted in the month of March 2015. However, instead of culminating this selection process by short-listing the candidates who participated in the written test for the interviews, the Board preferred to initiate fresh selection process for the same posts and this has raised eyebrows.
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