Daily Excelsior....News Page

Jaya quits SP presidentship
Fernandes resigns, Mamata pulls out of NDA Govt
*Two ministers' resignations rejected

NEW DELHI, Mar 15: Defence Minister George Fernandes, Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee as well as her Trinamool colleague Ajit Panja tonight resigned from the Vajpayee Government rocked by allegations of corruption in defence deals, plunging the ruling NDA coalition into a crisis.

In a day of dramatic political events, Banerjee first announced that her party, which has nine members in the Lok Sabha, was pulling out of the Government and withdrawing support to it after her demand for the removal of Fernandes was turned down by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Shortly thereafter Fernandes, who had made no public comment on the allegations resulting from an expose by a news portal for the last two days, went on Doordarshan to announce his resignation to uphold the morale of the armed forces and prevent "further damage to our national defence". However, he dismissed the charges as completely false.

The mercurial Banerjee, who is making corruption a major plank in the ensuing West Bengal Assembly elections, was not placated by the resignation of Fernandes as she declared later that she was not going to review her decision to pull out of the NDA.

Banerjee as well as the Minister of State for External Affairs Panja, who was the other Trinamool representative in the Government, sent their resignations to Vajpayee saying it was "too late now" to change their minds.

Another political head to roll in the course of the day was that of Fernandes’ associate Jaya Jaitly, who stepped down from the presidentship of Samata Party in the wake of national television channels repeatedly playing secretly shot video tapes showing money being given in her presence in the Defence Minister’s house by an undercover reporter.

As his Government was engulfed by a crisis Vajpayee met President K R Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan to brief him on the political situation which does not pose any immediate threat to his Government.

The Vajpayee-led coalition has the support of 291 members of the Lok Sabha—20 more than the minimum required—even after the pulled out by Trinamool Congress. However, the next move of Fernandes’ Samata Party which has a strength of 12 in the House, would be carefully watched.

Late tonight there was speculation that two other Samata representatives in the Government, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar and Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh may also quit.

Scenting blood, the constituents of the erstwhile United Front today announced the formation of a "Quami Front" (people’s front) to provide an alternative to Congress and BJP in the wake of development at the centre and to face the coming Assembly elections in five states.

But leaders present on the occasion of launching the Front—Marxist veterans Jyoti Basu and H K S Surjeet and Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav—spoke differently on a possible tie-up with Congress in Government formation at the Centre.

While the CPI(M) leaders did not completely rule out tying up with Congress, Yadav parried all questions on the issue.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar and two Ministers of State belonging to Samata Party tonight followed their senior leader George Fernandes in resigning from the Government but it was rejected by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Besides Nitish Kumar, the Minister of State for Railways Digvijay Singh and the Minister of State for Consumer Affairs V Sreenivasa Prasad had submitted their resignations to Vajpayee in solidarity with Fernandes.

It was officially stated that Vajpayee had not accepted the three resignations.

Resignations of Union Ministers George Fernandes, Mamata Banerjee and Ajit Panja were accepted tonight. The resignations were accepted by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and forwarded to President K R Narayanan for his approval, it was officially stated. (Agencies)

SSSRB truncated; Supreme Court orders disregarded
Rules are for fools in Govt recruitment

From Ahmed Ali Fayaz

SRINAGAR, Mar 15: National Conference (NC) government’s decision to restructure the State Subordinate Services Recruitment Board (SSSRB) with the expulsion of all the 18 members in 1998 was widely appreciated in the State. Quite a large number of the members, who were retired Government officials with nothing at stake, had crossed limits of corrupt practices. When the Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah himself was convinced that some SSRB members had received bribe of Rs one Lakh per vacancy from the candidates selected, he suggested dismissal of all its members. Consequently, the Cabinet restructured the SSSRB with half-a-dozen senior KAS/IAS officers most of whom enjoyed good reputation among the masses.

However, pessimism prevailed with the appointment of Mr Iqbal Khanday as the impression went round that he had actually been "dumped" in the SSSRB. In spite of being controversial in certain administrative circles, Khanday is generally rated as an officer of high integrity. According to a well-placed source, it was within a couple of months that the Chairman began to doubt the Government’s sincerity in his appointment as head of the independent body responsible for selection of incumbents for all non-gazetted vacancies.

While as most of the departments "concealed" their vacancies, just a few were referred to the SSSRB. The board’s capacity to work was reduced with the transfer of two members, namely Najam-us-Saquib and Chaman Lal, to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation respectively. While their slots are still vacant and yet another member, Mohammad Amin Khan, is reaching superannuation this month itself, the SSSRB will be left with only two members—K S Salathia and Lekh Raj Sharma—on March 1 next as against 17 in 1998.

On the other hand, the clandestine process of backdoor appointments has already assumed menacing proportions. Even as most of the vacancies are to be filled up under rules on 50:50 basis (50% direct recruitment through SSSRB selection and 50% in-service promotions), it has been observed that over 90% of the vacancies are bungled with the promotion quota. At least 6,000 influential incumbents are believed to have been taken into the non-gazetted service, in violation of norms, by HoDs and other officers in the last three years.

The modus operandi of filling up other vacancies has been clear. The favourites are either promoted on ad hoc basis or given charge of senior positions. Rest one needs is a stay order. It is no secret in Jammu & Kashmir that most of the officers honour only the court orders of their own choice and suitability.

It was in the background of this phenomenon that the Division Bench of the Supreme Court of India, comprising Mr Justice Jagannadha Rao and Mr Justice A P Misra, admonished the State of Jammu & Kashmir in April last year. In a civil appeal titled Suraj Prakash Gupta and others v/s State of Jammu & Kashmir, the Supreme Court directed that there should be no promotions, ad hoc or otherwise, or backdoor appointments by way of ‘relaxation of rules’ against the vacancies of the direct quota of recruitment.

In the directions to J&K State, the Supreme Court observed that the State of Jammu & Kashmir had been "flouting basic rules of recruitment by granting relaxation of the rules of the direct recruitment as also the rules requiring consultation with Public Service Commission (PSC), Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for promotions/recruitment by transfer". In order to ensure that this is not done in future the Court directed the State Government to constitute a high level committee "within one month" which would ascertain the number of vacancies occupied illegally by the promotees and those appointed in "relaxation of rules".

GAD sources confirmed that no such committee had been constituted during the last eleven months. In clause ‘C’ of the general directions, the Division Bench had directed: "The state of Jammu & Kashmir will ensure that no relaxation of basic recruitment rules is made for direct recruitment through PSC or for purpose of regular promotions/recruitment by transfer. The recommendations of the (high level) committee, referred to above, may be considered by Government and implemented in accordance with the rules and in accordance with law without unreasonable delay".

However, for the last about one year, while the menace of "relaxation of rules" has remained uninhibited, there has neither been any high level committee nor any recommendations.

In gross violation of the Supreme Court orders, the State Forest Department recently appointed as many as 73 blue-eyed incumbents without referring one to SSSRB. According to Government sources, all the incumbents were the kith and kin of several ministers, bureaucrats and influential officers. Finally the matter was taken to the court of law which quashed all such unauthorised appointments. In spite of the court orders, these vacancies have not been referred to SSSRB.

Yet another typical example of recent times is the proposed selection of 182 Female Supervisors in Social Welfare Department. As per the rules, 91 vacancies were to be filled up in the in-service promotion quota and the rest 91 through the selection of SSSRB. For the 91 vacancies referred to SSSRB, the department stipulated the vague qualification of "Graduate with Anganwari training". Since there is no "Anganwari training" in Jammu & Kashmir or any other Indian State, the response was zero. Later, the essential qualification for the posts was fixed as "Graduation".

However, rather than referring the vacancies back to SSSRB for selection, the officers of Social Welfare Department—allegedly under the influence of the minister incharge and some bureaucrats—decided to fill up the posts on "consolidated pay" initially for a fixed period of 89 days. While the search is on for the kith and kin of politicians and bureaucrats—and also those ready to pay secretly—, touts have been overtly on the job with a "rate card" of Rs 50,000 each.