‘Appointments scam’ in Khadi Village & Industries Board
Need to evolve mechanism for timely action in cases of illegalities
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 21: Home Secretary headed panel has once again failed to meet the deadline for completion of enquiry into ‘appointments scam’ in Jammu and Kashmir Khadi Village and Industries Board (KVIB) and submission of report to the Government. This has clearly established that even during Governor’s rule cases of illegalities are not being prioritized for timely action against erring officials.
The appointments made by the J&K KVIB against various posts came under question after some close relatives of the leaders of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which was running the Government with BJP in the State, figured in the selection list issued early this year.
Initially the then PDP-BJP Government maintained criminal silence over the controversial selections but following much hue and cry by the Opposition parties the then Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on February 25, 2018 announced that the high-level enquiry will be conducted in the entire selection process.
A formal order in this regard was issued on March 19, 2018 when General Administration Department constituted a committee headed by R K Goyal, Principal Secretary to the Government, Home Department and comprising of two more IAS officers namely Dr Pawan Kotwal and Farooq Ahmad Shah.
As per the order, the enquiry was to be completed within a period of one month-by April 19, 2018 but even after the lapse of over seven months neither the exercise has been completed nor report submitted to the Government, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
Vide Order No.733-GAD dated April 27, 2018 the committee was given time frame of one more month for completion of task. But the same was missed on the ground that certain documents were awaited from the Khadi Village and Industries Board for conclusion of enquiry.
Thereafter, vide Order No. 1483 dated September 28, 2018 the General Administration Department extended the period for finalizing the report by the enquiry committee up to October 31, 2018. But the Home Secretary-headed panel has failed to meet even this deadline, sources said while disclosing that no report has so far been submitted to the Government.
The mandate of the committee was to enquire into the complaints relating to the alleged unfair selections made by the Board; determine as to whether proper procedure as laid down in the relevant rules has been followed; enquire into the methodology in selecting the agency for setting the question and evaluation process etc and ascertain whether any deviation has been made in the selection process from advertising the posts to the release of selection list.
It is pertinent to mention here that EXCELSIOR in its report dated October 1, 2018 had specifically mentioned that there were grim chances of committee meeting deadline of October 31, 2018 because of dilly-dallying approach ever since the ordering of enquiry early this year.
All the record pertaining to the selections was available either with the KVIB or the private agency engaged for making selections as such delay of eight months in completion of enquiry cannot be justified in any way, sources said, adding at least during Governor’s rule enquiry into illegalities should not have been conducted with slackness as people have the impression that during Governor’s rule justice is meted out in a time bound manner.
“Time has come for the Governor’s administration to evolve a mechanism for timely action in all the cases of illegalities so as to come up to the expectations of the people and ensure timely action against the erring officials”, sources stressed.
It may be recalled that posts of Law Officer, Publicity Officer, Field Publicity Officer and of other ranks were advertised by the KVIB vide Advertisement Notice No. KVIB/02 of 2013 dated April 26, 2013 and written test for these posts was conducted in the month of March 2015.
However, instead of culminating this selection process by short-listing the candidates who had participated in the written test for the interviews, the Board preferred to initiate fresh selection process for the same posts on political pressure.
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