Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 28: Demanding that the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd be declared as a `public authority’ under RTI Act, Bharatiya Janta Party today stressed that selections in the bank be made on the basis of merit at the State level and not district wise.
“The rules and regulations of the J&K Bank do not provide that selection is made district wise. Otherwise also, the question of making district wise selection does not arise as any employee can be posted in any branch of the Bank located in any State of India,” said State BJP Spokesperson, Advocate Abhinav Sharma, while addressing a press conference, here today.
Giving more reasons why district wise selection cannot be made, he explained that the advertisement did not provide that the selection would be district wise while no district wise number of vacancies was shown. “The advertisement also did not provide that the candidate belonging to a particular district can apply in his home district only,” he added.
Pertinent to mention that applications were recently invited by the Bank from the permanent residents of J&K State for 250 posts of Probationary Officers. The selection was to be in three phases. Preliminary examination, Mains examination and Viva Voce. It was nowhere mentioned in the advertisement notice that selection is to be made district wise, but when the result of the preliminary examination was declared, the cut off merit of Kashmir Valley was 40 percent whereas it was 63 percent for Jammu.
Mr Sharma alleged that it was in order to protect the interests of candidates from Kashmir Valley that District wise selection was being made by bringing cut off at 40 points.
Reminding that the State Government is the majority shareholder in J&K Bank, which has been earning huge profits because of the State patronage , the BJP Spokesperson said that despite all this, the Bank has resisted every attempt of its being brought under the Right to Information regime.
“Despite the fact the it is the sole Bank, in which all the Government officers/officials, departments, PSUs, Development Agencies are mandated to keep their official funds and open their salary accounts whether they like it or not, yet the bank is taking shelter under technicalities saying that it is a private company and is not a `public authority’ under RTI Act and therefore not obliged to provide information under RTI Act,” said Abhinav Sharma, who is also president of Jammu Bar Association.
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