Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Sept 1: A major fraud has surfaced in Jammu and Kashmir State Agro Industries Development Corporation Limited (J&K SAIDC) where some of the blue eyed candidates were selected as Assistant Managers on invalid certificates and others are now working on the posts for which they are not qualified.
Four candidates Adnan Ashraf Mir, Farooq Ahmad Mir, Talat Waheed Banday and Shafia Shabir were selected as Assistant Manager Marketing Srinagar, Assistant Manager Cattle Feed, Assistant Manager Food Production and Assistant Manager Marketing Delhi in J&K SAIDC respectively in 2014 and the documents of the department suggested fraud in the selection process.
As per the answer sheets provided by the Department under RTI the four candidates had secured 96, 90, 87 and 86 marks respectively in written examinations out of 100. The next 15 candidates who were called for the interview and not selected, secured 61, 60, 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, 54, 54, 53, 53, 53, 52, 52 and 36 marks in written test.
Sources said that the department ensured that even if the four candidates (who were later selected) skip the interview they were still in the final selection list as the difference was carefully maintained between 25-35 marks.
A response to an RTI application revealed that 2 candidates – Talat Waheed Banday and Farooq Ahmed – are working on the posts for which they had not applied as they had no requisite qualification for those posts.
Banday had applied for posts of Assistant Manager Marketing and Assistant Manager Cattle Feed but as per RTI he is posted as Assistant Manager Food Processing for which he is not qualified. Farooq Ahmad had applied for Assistant Manager Food Processing but as per RTI reply by the department, he is posted as Assistant Manager Cattle Feed for which he is not qualified.
The reply further revealed that Sajad Ahmed Kar, under roll No. 1121 was shortlisted for the interview for the post of Assistant Manager Marketing and scored 36 marks while those candidates who had secured 40 marks were not called for the interview for the same post.
Adnan Ashraf Mir and Shafia Shabir were selected as Assistant Manager-Marketing when both of them possessed foreign Master’s Degree which are not valid in India. As per UGC guidelines all those persons who have foreign degrees have to get NOC/Equivalence Certificate from Association of Indian Universities (AIU), in order to certify that their degrees are valid and recognised in India.
As per AIU, which evaluates foreign degrees, they don’t offer NOC/Equivalence certificate to Master’s Degree of less than 2 year duration. As Mir and Shafia had one year Masters Degree they are not eligible for the Equivalence Certificate. However, the Agro Industries accepted their degrees without verifying them from AIU.
Mir resigned from the department and Shafia went absconding and later she was terminated after a candidate challenged their selection in the High Court. As per the records Shafia has done 2 year diploma Course from IIPM in 2007-2009 and she received her diploma certificate from IIPM on May 10, 2010. But as per certificates submitted in the J&K SAIDC she had also Post Graduate Degree in Management from IMI-Brussels, which was awarded to her on January 25, 2010 when at that time she was pursuing diploma from IIPM. According to a written reply of HRD Minister, Smriti Irani to a question in Rajya Sabha the IMI Brussels degrees are fake and not valid in India.
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