The PDP-BJP government under the leadership of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti looks divided on ideological lines but united over issue of transfers and postings of in-service officers and re-employments of retired babus known for their doubtful integrity.
Perhaps it has not happened anywhere in India that a doctor heading the Indian System of Medicines (ISM) department was assigned the charge as Managing Director Horticulture Produce & Marketing Corporation (HPMC) and now an IAS officer who went into disrepute after a video showing him in a highly objectionable position with some girls went viral on social media few months back has been brought after several months of attachment on the position of Director Indian System of Medicines (ISM) department. Interestingly several cases are pending disposal in the state vigilance organization (SVO) against the doctor who headed the ISM department for about a decade and was not only given the charge as Managing Director Horticulture Produce & Marketing Corporation (HPMC) but also put on the elevated position of Secretary (Technical) in the Health and Medical Education department. Ironically the doctor against whom several cases are pending in the state vigilance organization (SVO) has been now offered the position of Commissioner Food Safety a post almost equivalent in rank and status to the full fledged administrative secretary of any other department after holding the key positions of Director Indian System of Medicines (ISM) department, Managing Director Horticulture Produce & Marketing Corporation and Secretary (Technical) Health & Medical Education Department.
Not only in the case of the transfers of both the former and the incumbent Directors of ISM department the government also surprisingly brought a junior female IAS officer of the special secretary rank on the position of Special Secretary in the rural development department and assigned her the job of the administrative secretary despite having the scope for appointing any one from among the senior scale KAS and IAS cadre officers of the secretary rank to fill the vacant position of Secretary Rural Development department.
The intents of the government in keeping the key position of Secretary Rural Development vacant after the superannuation of Rafiq Ahmed Hakeem more than a month ago were not though understood by many people within and outside the government but the decision of government to assign the job to a junior female IAS officers despite having the scope to appoint the one among the many officers of KAS and IAS cadres of senior scale on the key position of Secretary Rural Development department can now understood well by people having greater administrative wisdom . Worth mentioning is the fact that last year government displaced a senior officer known for his deliverance and integrity from the position of secretary rural development department and placed him on the insignificant position of Commissioner/Secretary Tribal Affairs Department. Soon after the transfers of some senior KAS and IAS officers in a cabinet meeting early this week the government stung yet another surprise by recalling the recently retired Director Entrepreneurial Development Institute (EDI) with the offer of re-employment for a record time of three years. Interestingly the government in its order claimed that the reemployment of retired Director EDI was necessitated by the non-availability of a suitable choice for the replacement of the said Director. If at all the government contention about the non availability of a suitable choice is to be believed the minister holding the charge of Industries Commerce Department won’t find any answers to the question that has the good work done by the retired Director Entrepreneurial Development Institute (EDI) been washed away in just three weeks to the extent that his re-employment became a compulsion for the government. Merely for the purposes of offering a post retirement rehabilitation package to the retired EDI Director the government can’t brush aside the fact that professors of great repute presently working in the both the Kashmir and Jammu universities with specialization in Industrial Management and top babus of IAS and KAS cadre have both the capacity and the talent to run the Entrepreneurial Development Institute more efficiently than the retired Director EDI. Government can’t just deny the fact that perhaps for the first in the administrative history of Jammu & Kashmir it has extended the off of three years re-employment to any senior officer after retirement.
Not only in the recent transfers but during last more than two years of PDP-BJP coalition rule under the leadership of Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti the government has explored all possibilities to adjust and accommodate the blue eyed officials of the top party functionaries of PDP and BJP and one such glaring example was the placement of Baseer Ahmed Khan as Divisional Commissioner Kashmir despite the directions of State High court against the placement of this top babu on any sensitive position. Keeping in view the trends set for the working of the government and the tendencies of the incumbent ministers in cases of transfers, postings and re-employment it seems that PDP-BJP coalition government has set tone for the agenda of transfers, postings and re-employments only bringing down the integrity of institutions and not the “ agenda of alliance” which the coalition leaders say is the bench mark for governance in the state.