Selective postings at top level in civil, police admin leave Kashmiris sidelined

Srinagar: Bringing in juniors on the position of seniors is setting a new trend in the civil and police administration in Jammu and Kashmir and the trend has sidelined top Kashmiri officers. The latest blow to the local bureaucracy in Jammu and Kashmir is the posting of a junior officer as law secretary and snatching of key assignments from the outgoing law secretary the time when law department is dealing with super sensitive issues of public interest including the challenge to Article 35-A and Article 370 thrown up by the affiliates of BJP in Supreme Court of India.
Quoting insiders local news gathering agency KNS reported that steadily and slowly under the Governor’s administration the top local IAS and IPS officers have been put on insignificant positions excepting a couple of officers who have been given the charge of departments concerning construction of routine projects like R&B, PHE, Irrigation and flood control.
Echoing the sentiments of insiders in the bureaucracy, senior National Conference (NC) leader Mohammad Akbar Lone said “the transfer of law secretary, an officer well versed with the handling of supersensitive case on Article 35-A shows the intents of the Governor’s administration on Article 35-A. Though we have been witnessing that for a very long time juniors have been brought on the positions of seniors to hold charge of sensitive departments but the trend has now taken a dangerous turn as we are seeing even top police officers from Kashmir being shifted to insignificant positions including the likes of Abdul Gani Mir, now ADGP PHQ and Javid Gilani, now Director Vigilance.”
Sharing the concerns of Mohammad Akbar Lone the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Society Coordination Committee (JKCSCC) members Muzafar Ahmad Shah, Advocate Mir Javed and Jagmohan Singh Raina said that the shifting of law secretary of Kashmiri background shows that the intents of Governor’s administration are posing a severe threat to the handling of a sensitive case filed against Article 35-A in the Supreme Court of India. The integrity of the newly appointed law secretary Achal Sethi, who is officer of special secretary rank is known for his doubtful integrity. We feel the way Governor’s administration plans to sabotage the state government’s case on Article 35-A and Article 370, the way it sabotaged formation of a three party coalition government comprising NC, PDP and Congress just two days back.”
Meanwhile, insiders without wishing to be named said that the senior most among local IAS officers Asgar Hassan Samoon has been given the charge of most insignificant departments like animal & sheep husbandry and Transport while his juniors not a match to his professional integrity and working are holding the charge of departments like Finance, Planning, Home, Power Development Department and Rural Development Department. They said not only in civil admin but in police administration also top IPS officers have been displaced from significant to insignificant positions including Abdul Gani Mir, recently transferred as ADGP CID and posted ADGP PHQ.
It is in place to mention here that Governor’s administration has stopped the routine practice of sending transfer lists to news papers and other media outlets for publication but this practice has been stopped just to avoid wider publicity of the Governments decisions on transfers and postings in civil administration.
A top government official on conditions of anonymity said that now when the transfer orders are uploaded on websites the government does not deem it fit to send the press notes about transfers and postings to news papers, news agencies and other media outlets in the state.