Fayaz Bukhari
SRINAGAR, Nov 5: In gross violation of recruitment rules, Director Jammu and Kashmir State Skill Development Mission, Ghulam Nabi Peer, has made appointments without taking Executive Council of the Mission into confidence and without referring the posts to the recruitment agencies.
Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti is the Chairperson of Jammu and Kashmir State Skill Development Mission and she has been kept in dark about these illegal appointments. However, sources said that the matter regarding these appointments has now been brought to her notice.
The Mission Director has violated the norms and codal departmental procedures by making eight appointments, mostly his friends and Minister’s relatives. He issued an advertisement notification (No. 01 of 2017 dated 07-10- 2017) for the appointment of Communication Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Event Manager, Office Superintendent, two Office Assistants and four Orderlies in Mission Directorate.
Those appointed persons are: Mohammad Asif son of Sheikh Abdul Rashid resident of Solina Balla Srinagar as Communication Officer, Sibat Saheem Qureshi son of Mohammad Qureshi resident of Lal Bazar Srinagar as Event Manager, Ishtiyaq Amin Shah son of Mohammad Amin Shah resident of Bota Kadal Srinagar as Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Saba Anjum daughter of Mohammad Afzal Malik resident of Umar Colony Lal Bazar Srinagar as Office Superintendent, Fasil Hassan son of Ghulam Hassan Khan resident of Sheshgari Mohalla Srinagar and Dhreeshit Jasrotia son of Gagan Singh of Sainik Colony Jammu as office Assistants and Sunny Kashyap, Mudassir Mohammad Khan, Ayub Mohidin Khan and Shafat Ahmad Mir as orderlies.
The Communication Officer, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer and Event Manager are gazetted cadre posts, while office Superintendent is highly technical post and has never been appointed directly so far in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Normally a Junior Assistant appointed through the Service Selection Board gets promoted as Senior Assistant, and next promotion is Head Assistant and then Office Superintendent.
All these posts were not referred to any recruitment agency but were filled in hush hush manner with Mission Director, his two mid-career journalist friends and Principal KG Polytechnic in the interview panel. The walk-in interview notification was issued by the Mission Director on 7th October, it was published in the newspapers on 8th of October and interviews were conducted at K G Polytechnic Srinagar on 12 and 13th of October and list was out on 14th October.
The advertisement notice has clear instructions that the appointing authority (Mission Director) has the right to accept or reject any application without assigning any reason which clearly shows that lack of accountability.
While issuing the advertisement notice, the Director by-passed the Executive council members of State Skill Development Mission, who include Administrative Secretary Planning Development and Monitoring Department (Chair-man), Administrative Secretary Technical Education Department, Administrative Secretary School Education Department, Administrative Secretary Power Development Department, Administrative Secretary Finance Department, Administrative Secretary Industries and Commerce Department, Administrative Secretary Health and Medical Education Department, Administrative Secretary Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and Administrative Secretary Tourism Department Administrative Secretary Horticulture Department.
As per the records, there were no such posts in the establishment of the department till they were filled fraudulently nor there was any requirement of these posts. However, he has now written to Planning Department for creation of these posts and has also sought funds from Finance Department for their salary and other perks.
To run the Mission the Government had already transferred (Govt order no. 103-Edu (Tech) of 2017 dated 27-09-2017) five officials from Technical Education Department to Mission Directorate. These include Naresh Kumar Gupta who was Incharge HoD Electronics Govt Polytechnic Poonch, Khalid Sheikh who was Lecturer Mechanical Department Govt Polytechnic Jammu, Abdul Rashid Sheikh who was incharge Assistant Director (SDM), Directorate of Technical Education J&K, Abdul Rashid Shah who was head Assistant Directorate of Technical Education J&K and Suresh Kumar Sharma who was Librarian Directorate of Technical Education J&K. Besides this two orderlies, one each from ITI and polytechnic sector Bashir Ahmad and Raja Muzaffar have been transferred to the Mission Directorate.
Peer Ghulam Nabi, the Mission Director’s appointment is also questionable as he was appointed (Govt Order 98 Edu (Tech) of 2017 dated 08-09-2017) as ‘Consultant’ in Technical Education Department in blatant violation of appointment rules and without advertising the post.
He was appointed as Consultant with designation as Mission Coordinator for J&K State Skill Development Mission in Technical Education Department on a monthly salary of Rs 60,000 besides other allowances and accommodation at par with a Special Scale KAS Officer.
In the order it has been mentioned that the transportation shall be provided by the State Motor Garages and official accommodation by the Directorate of Technical Education in Jammu as well in Srinagar. He has been provided SRX car bearing registration number JK01T 1830 by State Mortar Garages without driver. Normally SMG does not provide its vehicles to officials without driver. These type of cars were recently purchased by Government for Commissioner Secretaries but the Government has been very kind to this illegally appointed officer.
The Government being very kind to Peer, made him Mission Director (Govt vide order No 1204-GAD of 2017 dated 19-09- 2017) from Consultant in just 11 days after his illegal appointment. By the same order senior KAS officer Shabnum Shah Kamili who is Director Technical Education was relieved of her additional charge.
The KAS officers are aghast over such appointments and they said that Kamili has 18 years of service and her charge was given to illegally appointed person. They said that the Association has taken up the issue with Government.
Peer is a resident of Kupwara district and has been holding Kehwa Talks in the restaurants of Srinagar for last two years. His appointment has raised eyebrows and questions on how nepotism and violation of rules are flagrantly violated, even as the BJP-PDP claim of running accountable and transparent Government.
Soon after his appointment as Mission Director, on 11th October, Peer organiszed a seminar in 5-Star Hotel, Taj Vivanta, which was attended by the Minister for Technical Education, Molvi Imran Raza Ansari, but was boycotted by Commissioner Secretaries of various departments who were also invited. The Directorate of Technical Education Department was made to illegally pay the bill amounting to Rs 2.87 lakh. A senior official said that the seminar could have been organized in any of the Convocation Centres of Technical Education Department but was held at 5-star Hotel putting burden on State exchequer.
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