Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 27: State Government has ordered a fresh enquiry into fake certificate scam in Indian System of Medicine Department(ISM) allegedly involving Director ISM, Dr Abdul Kabir Dar, and asked the enquiry committee to submit its report in one week.
Government ordered (Order NO. 277-HME of 2015 dated 22.7.2015) an exhaustive enquiry into the scam so that a detailed reply is filed before the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) wherein it is alleged that Director General ISM, Abdul Kabir Dar, has issued Dawasaaz (Pharmacist) certificates to the hundreds of persons and none of them have ever been admitted in any College or Institute for undergoing such training or ever having attended any classes or practicals or appearing in any test or examination.
As the court is seized of the matter about the issue of fake certificates and Government did not till date have come up with a clear stand before the court and today when the case was taken up for further proceedings Advocate General, Jehangir Ganai, produced a copy of order before the Division Bench of Chief Justice N P Vasanthakumar and Justice Hasnain Masoodi and submitted that the Government has constituted a three member committee and asked it to file its enquiry report with one week.
“The Committee shall conduct an exhaustive enquiry into the fact and submit its report within a week’s time from the date of issue of this order enabling the Department to file detailed reply in the subject case as mentioned in the Government order”, directed the Court.
After producing the order before the court petitioner counsel and senior advocate in High Court, Bashir Ahmad Bashir, raised a strong objection over the enquiry committee and submitted before the court that the members of the said committee are the employees of the health department and are working with the Director as the Director is holding the post when allegation are directly against him and how could the enquiry into the matter would be impartial.
Government has appointed Madan Lal (Joint Director Planning) as chairman of the enquiry committee while as Tahir Mustafa Malik (Under Secretary) H&ME and Pooja Rasgotra (Under Secretary) H&ME as members of the enquiry committee.
Court deferred the hearing of the matter till August 12 as the outcome of the enquiry committee is still awaited.
Petitioner is seeking Dawasaaz certificates issued by the Director and those which are lying in his record should be declared nullify further Director Vigilance be directed to register FIR against the Director ISM under Section 5(2) of the PC Act and till such time he(Director) be removed from the said post so that the record be protected.
It may be mentioned here that hundreds of certificates of Dawasaaz’s were issued fraudulently by Dr Abdul Kabir Dar, the then Director ISM, during 5 years between 2008 and 2012. Instead of taking any action against him, he was promoted by the previous government last year as Director General ISM.
This is not for the first time that an inquiry has been ordered into the certificate scam against Dar but the previous inquiry has been botched up helping him to get away with it.
The inquiry ordered by the Health and Medical Education Department (Order No 03/HME of 2014 dated 02/01/2014) last year was botched up as it has instead of putting question marks on the wrong doings of the officials, defended them.
The inquiry was ordered on the complaint lodged against Dar, for issuing around 300 fraudulent certificates to youth across the State some of whom were later employed in Health Department under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
The inquiry conducted by Joint Director Health and Medical Education Department and Additional Secretary to Government Health and Medical Education gave clean chit to the Director ISM but an RTI has exposed this botched up inquiry.
A list of 994 candidates for Dawasaaz Diploma was issued by the department in 2008 and it was later cancelled by government order number 121-HME (GR) of 2008 (Dated 17-10-2008).
Out this list 24 candidates were issued degrees despite the cancellation of the list. But the ISM director has said that the list of these 24 candidates published (as Advertisement) in Daily Excelsior mentioned these names inadvertently.
The inquiry took one Jabeena Bano daughter of Mohammad Abdullah Bhat as test case to show that no fraud was done by the ISM director. She was issued a certificate (dated 17-07-2009) under Roll Number 33 that was held in 2008. But Jabeena Bano is not a matriculate as per the records of the BOSE. The records show that Jabeena Bano has produced a certificate in which she has shown that she has passed the Matriculation examination in 1997 under Roll number 328422 Session (Jan-Feb). But the BOSE records show that she had re-appear in Science and Social Science.
The non-Matriculate being provided admission (if at all it was provided to her) for Dawasaaz diploma has put a question mark on the credibility of the inquiry report that has exonerated the Director ISM.
Another candidate Majid Ahmad Khan of Srinagar has been issued a Diploma certificate by Director in 2008 under Roll number 59. Khan has passed his Matriculation on September 15, 2006 under Roll 857470 as per his school records. As per the records of the ISM his selection was not made in 2006, 2007 or 2008 but he has got the Diploma certificate issued by ISM Director.
The previous departmental inquiry has given clean chit to Director ISM in the scam the departmental inquiry was conducted by the employees of the department who allegedly helped Dar and exonerated him.
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