Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 27: Former Member, J&K Public Service Commission (PSC), KB Jandial, has resigned from the chairmanship of a committee formed to oversee/implement the contents of Government advertisements in the State in terms of the guidelines of the Supreme Court.
In a communication addressed to Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti, who is also Minister Incharge Information, KB Jandial, said, “In order to make the committee, which was constituted vide Government Order 08-ID of 2017 dated 14-03-2017 functional, I had requested the then Director of Information and his successor, and also the Member Secretary of the Committee to take steps to facilitate its early functioning”.
“I even visited the Information Department twice in this regard and suggested calling a preliminary meeting to sort out modalities for its effective functioning. Regrettably till date, there has been no response, whatsoever”, he said, adding, “I have been noticing that some of the official advertisements published in the newspapers appear to be in violation of Supreme Court approved guidelines”.
“While the life of the committee is only for one year, eight months have since passed. I have got the impression that the Government is perhaps not keen to make it functional”, he regretted. On these grounds, he has tendered his resignation from the chairmanship of the non-functional committee.
He has also brought to the notice of the CM that the Government has also constituted “Media Advisory Committee” to examine the broader aspects of the proposed State Media Advisory Council and submit its recommendations in eight weeks for better management of media of the State in future”.
“I never received the order even though the then Information Minister had taken my consent for a “search committee” for recommending names of the members and rules for the proposed State Media Advisory Council,” he said.
“This Committee ran into controversy with Mohd Syed Malik disassociating from it for not taking his prior consent and making “management of media” as terms of reference of the Committee”, he said, adding, “I did share the views of Syed Malik and immediately spoke to the then Information Minister for suitably modifying the order to make it a Search Committee for which my consent was taken, and making it independent without keeping Director Information as its head. Since the order has not been modified as promised, I am constrained to disassociate from this committee as well”.
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