Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Jan 22: The Government had to face embarrassment on the recruitment issue of Special Police Officers ( SPOs) as Minister failed to give proper reply on the floor of the Upper House today while a ruling BJP member from Kashmir and opposition Congress member, staged walk out from the House as mark of protest.
The issue in the Legislative Council was raised by Congress Members- Ghulam Nabi Monga and Thakur Balbir Singh. Minister for Revenue, Abdul Rehman Veeri was responding on behalf of Minister Incharge Home (Chief Minister) and interestingly Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti was also present in the House at that time.
The Minister while responding to the main question gave district and unit-wise detail of total 11,442 SPOs recruited/ engaged in the State recently. He further revealed that prior to 2016, no physical test was conducted for recruitment of SPOs and for the first time a Designated Selection Committee was framed. He claimed that 5689 SPOs have undergone the Physical test. The Government maintained total transparency in the recruitment process and those who fell in the criteria, were selected.
Monga asked, ” If out of 11442 SPOs recruited, 5869 appeared for the test, then what was the mode adopted by Government for recruiting the remaining people and what was the criteria fixed for those ‘special’ who did not turn up for physical test ? The Govt should also tell us what type of transparency is being maintained here for such people who were exempted from the test?
Veeri avoided to give direct reply and maintained that it is for the first time that such mechanism of test for recruitment of SPOs was adopted. During their (Cong-NC) time no such mechanism was in place. The Government do not want to hide anything. DCs were involved in the process. The Member further pressed that he wanted brief and direct reply of his question.
He pleaded with the Chairman that directions must go to the Government to give proper reply. But the Minister failed to give proper reply again and the CM also did not intervene. Apparently the Government perhaps had no reply of it and it apparently got trapped in the own reply. The Congress member lodged strong protest and staged walk out from the House.
BJP Member Sofi Yousuf wanted to raise supplementary but he was snubbed and not allowed by the Chairman to raise his point. He also lodged his protest against the Chairman and staged walk out from the House.
Congress member Balbir Singh asked whether 9500 youth were recruited from Kashmir and just 1500 from Jammu. There was strong resentment among the people from Jammu region. The Government must reply why Jammu areas were ignored, he said.
Veeri however, claimed that this special recruitment was for specific purpose and there was great need in Kashmir due to situation. The situation in Jammu was normal and not like that in Kashmir. Therefore, there was much need of SPOs there. Moreover, a fixed criteria was framed for the same with regard to height, educational qualification etc. Taking view of security situation in Kashmir, this decision was taken, Veeri maintained.
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