Panthers Party Urges CEC to Stop J&K Govt. Making Backdoor Appointments

By Sudesh Dogra

Mr. Harsh Dev Singh, MLA, Leader of the Panthers Legislature Party and the Secretary-General of the JKNPP today in a letter addressed to Chief Election Commissioner of India lodged complaint about the illegal, unconstitutional and election motivated acts of ommissions and commissions in J&K with a view to intimidate and corrupt the voters for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

In his letter he sought urgent intervention of the CEC stating that,

"1. The Congress-PDP government in the state, in utter abuse of powers and authority and in violation of all prevalent norms and laws, is resorting to undue influence, dishonest and dissolute measures to influence the voters on the even of Assembly elections in the State".

"2. That the Congress-PDP Government is resorting to large scale appointments through backdoor in selected areas and of selected people on pick and choose basis and on political considerations with a clear eye on the forthcoming elections in the State".

"3. That on 5th May, 2008 a state helicopter carrying the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Inspector General of Police, Jammu along with subordinate officers landed at various places/villages as per the directions of the Chief Minister and made recruitments of more than 100 constables from the said villages in utter violation of prescribed norms and recruitment rules applicable in the State. The villages for recruitment were chosen on political considerations and selections made in utter violation of all laws and in contravention of the constitutional provisions and guarantees available to citizens of a free state".

"4. That likewise the recruitment of constables is being made in various villages without inviting applications, without issuing public notice as mandated by law and favourites continue to be selected at the behest of State Chief Minister, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad".

"5. That thousands of candidates have been selected in police department and thousands of others are being selected in various other government departments arbitrarily without following due procedure of law governing such appointments. This is being done on the eve of elections with a view to influence the voters and hence the government needs to be restrained from indulging in such corrupt practices, which an independent and autonomous body like Election Commission alone is competent to do".

"6. That the government is further announcing the recruitment of candidates in civil departments under a newly coined scheme by the government called, "Fast Track Systems of Recruitment", a system unknown in jurisprudence. Fort her purpose several blue eyed officers and favourites have been nominated as members of recruitment boards and they have been directed to hold the selections against 40,000 odd posts within a period of three months and complete the same before elections. The nominations of recruitment board members having been made on political grounds, the "East Track System" system of recruitments is bound to be influenced by political considerations. The fixing of a time limit by the government and issuing directions to complete the process before elections is also intriguing".

"7. That the government is announcing the execution of some public works in various government departments and contracts are being awarded to blue eyed persons and favourites of those in power. Thousands of public works have been awarded in R&B (PWD) department and in power department by the government to political workers of the ruling class in contravention of the statutory requirements of inviting tenders and without issuance of public notices. The situation is worse in the districts of Doda, Ramban, Reasi, Jammu, Kathua, Kupwara, Pulwama, Baramulla, Bandipora where thousands of contracts in the aforesaid departments have been allotted to blue eyed persons and political workers without observing legal formalities".

"8. That the transfers of government employees and officers on key posts are being made on extraneous considerations with political motives. The favourites of the ruling Congress-PDP are being assigned key positions and other who are impartial and unbiased are being harassed and intimidated".

"9. That a large number of political workers who are neither MLAs nor MLCs are being given the status of Ministers in violation of the constitutional provisions. The state constitution (Sec.38) limits the size of ministry upto a maximum of twenty percent of the membership of State Legislature, which comes to a maximum of 25 ministers. The government has however, in addition to 25 ministers nominated a large number of favourites as political advisors and chairpersons of various corporations and conferred on them status of ministers along with the privileges that go with ministers. The said ministers, whose appointment is extra-constitutional, are misusing and abusing the government machinery for the purpose of garnering political support for their parties in the ensuing elections".

"10. That the government is misusing the public exchequer and misappropriating the government funds with an eye on the coming elections. The construction works and other public utility works including establishment of heath centres, opening of new colleges and upgradation of schools are being done not on the basis of prescribed norms and the stipulated criteria but on the whims and fancies of rulers and on considerations of political expediency".

11. The Panthers Party leader emphasised that, "The public exchequer cannot be expended on the basis of pure discretion and in violation of prescribed procedures and norms. The action of the government amounts not only to misappropriation of funds and abuse of authority and of spirit of accountability but is also a corrupt practice which requires to be taken cognizance by the Election Commission". The Panthers Party leader warned CEC that the party shall knock the door of the appropriate court in case the CEC fails to intervene in the interest of free, fair and impartial polls".

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