Slams Govt’s outsourcing policy, Terms ₹1,000-Cr annual spend a ‘Den of Corruption’; Questions CM’s ‘Ignorance’ over absence of polling agents
Srinagar, May 11: J&K Peoples Conference President Sajad Lone on Monday addressed a crucial press conference, accusing both National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party of orchestrating a “fixed match” that ultimately enabled the BJP to secure a Rajya Sabha seat despite their facade anti-BJP posturing during the 2024 Assembly elections.
In his address, Lone referred to revelations made through an RTI regarding the absence of a polling agent during the Rajya Sabha elections and questioned Chief Minister Omar Abdullah over his subsequent remarks linking PDP’s conduct to BJP’s victory.
“The agent’s job is that the member shows the vote to him and then casts it. It was revealed in an RTI that they did not keep an agent. This means that all three members cast their votes according to their own will, because there was no one to check,” Lone said.
Questioning the Chief Minister’s claim of learning about the matter only after the RTI surfaced, Lone remarked, “Is it true that a sitting Chief Minister found out from an RTI? The Speaker is yours, the Secretary is under your government, from the security guards to the top, everything has been placed by your government. You didn’t know until today that an agent wasn’t kept?”
Drawing from his own legislative experience, Lone said he was fully aware of the voting procedure as he himself had participated in such voting earlier.
He asserted that the failure to appoint an agent was deliberate and reflected “mala fide intentions.” Recalling the 2015 arrangement involving his party, he stated that even when Peoples Conference had not deployed its own agent, one had been arranged through the alliance mechanism to ensure transparency.
“The point is simple and clear: two parties that were shouting the loudest that ‘everyone is BJP’ have together gifted the Rajya Sabha seat to the BJP. They didn’t keep an agent, and these people didn’t raise a hue and cry,” Lone said.
He further argued that the arithmetic of the Assembly itself exposed what he described as political collusion. According to Lone, after accounting for BJP’s numbers and his own vote, the remaining legislators possessed enough strength to comfortably secure both seats through a balanced distribution of votes.
“Where did these eight come from? And how did these eight make them win? Some rejected their votes, and some voted for the BJP,” he said, maintaining that one side intentionally avoided appointing an agent while the other side conveniently chose silence.
In a pointed appeal to journalists, Lone remarked, “During that election, you would shove the mic in my face 20 times a day asking, ‘Are you the B-team?’ Now the onus is on you. Go and ask them who is the B-team of BJP.”
He also expressed disappointment that the same political outrage witnessed during election campaigns against the BJP was absent when, according to him, the very parties invoking anti-BJP rhetoric facilitated BJP’s victory.
Turning to the issue of outsourcing in Jammu and Kashmir, Lone accused the government of systematically dismantling public employment by transferring thousands of government jobs to private agencies. Referring to a reply received in the Assembly, he claimed that nearly 22,000 to 24,000 positions had been outsourced, involving expenditures of approximately ₹1,000 crore annually.
He cautioned Mehbooba Mufti against conflating outsourcing with backdoor appointments and remarked that outsourcing was “a million times more poisonous than a back-door appointment.”
“This will totally destroy the youth here,” Lone warned, arguing that traditional government jobs once enabled upward social mobility for economically weaker sections. He observed that drivers, peons and clerks previously had opportunities for promotions and could educate their children to become engineers or civil servants, whereas the new system had effectively trapped workers in perpetual insecurity.
“Now, if you were a peon, you will remain a peon. They will give you only as much as you can barely eat; no child of yours will go for tuition,” he said.
Lone alleged that outsourcing companies were extracting substantial profits while underpaying workers. According to him, the government disburses far larger sums per employee than what actually reaches workers on the ground.
“The company gives them ₹13,000 while the government gives much more than that ₹20,000 or ₹25,000. Five is their profit; where the rest goes, you also know,” he remarked, terming the system “a den of corruption.”
He further questioned the lack of oversight regarding outsourced employees, stating that despite thousands of personnel being deployed, there was little accountability regarding their actual postings and functioning.
Particularly criticising the outsourcing of functions under the Mission Vatsalya Scheme, formerly known as ICPS, Lone expressed concern over handing sensitive child protection responsibilities to poorly paid contractual workers.
“How could they outsource the innocence of the children?” he asked, while explaining that the scheme dealt with issues such as protection of minors from abuse, juvenile justice and child welfare in a conflict-affected region.
He argued that an underpaid outsourced employee would never possess the institutional confidence to challenge powerful authorities in sensitive cases. “Will these rulers leave the future of their own children in the hands of the employees of those outsourcing companies?” he asked.
Describing the outsourcing framework as “poison for society” and a “hire and fire” system, Lone accused the government of abandoning its promise of creating one lakh government jobs and instead converting permanent public sector employment into insecure outsourced labour.
Responding to questions regarding governance and cabinet expansion, Lone dismissed claims that the administration was functioning efficiently under the current arrangement. “Who said people’s work is going on well?” he asked while criticising Omar Abdullah for being disconnected from the public.
“When did he meet people? When did he sit in a shop? When did he ever go walking anywhere? He’s a visitor,” Lone remarked, adding that governance suffers when ministers are burdened with excessive files and administrative responsibilities.
On PDP’s defence that it had no MLA requiring an agent, Lone cited the 2015 alliance period to argue that agents had earlier been considered necessary even in similar circumstances. He asserted that the present situation reflected a larger understanding between the concerned parties and BJP.
Addressing the ongoing political debate around alcohol and drugs, Lone accused both NC and PDP of political hypocrisy. While making his own personal position clear, he said, “For me, there is no difference between pork and alcohol. I neither drink nor associate with it.”
However, he accused both parties of adopting contradictory positions depending on whether they were in power or opposition. “When they are in power, they issue permits. When they are out of power, they bring bills. What drama is this?” he asked.
In a sarcastic remark on the mysterious cross-voting, Lone said, “I’ll give ₹10 lakh as a prize, tell me who those eight MLAs are. Genies have entered the ballot boxes.”
Concluding the press conference, Lone accused that NC and PDP alternated between political cooperation and public hostility purely for electoral convenience, while ordinary Kashmiris continued to bear the consequences.
He urged the people of Jammu and Kashmir to “wake up and take notice” of what he described as a continuing cycle of political deception.
