Bureaucratic wrangles: Allotment of portfolios shows babus junior to Baseer put under his control

Srinagar: The redistribution of portfolios among four advisors by the Lieutenant Governor Girish Chander Murmu shows that bureaucrats’ only such administrative secretaries who are junior to newly appointed Advisor Baseer Ahmed Khan have been put under his control and as such the move is apparently sufficient enough to indicate that all is not going well in the higher echelons of the bureaucracy in Jammu & Kashmir civil administration as infamous Gulmarg land scandal in which Baseer Khan is one of the accused officials has resurfaced with Jammu & Kashmir High Court directing anti-corrution Baramulla to submit date wise summary of the case since 2012 . Significantly a division bench of the high court also expressed it’s anguish over the “inordinate delay” in framing charges against the accused in this high profile land scam. Resentment is brewing among the people against the appointment of Baseer and his likes on coveted positions over their senior as none else than the Prime Minister has said that corruption and dynasty politics had necessitated the abrogation of article 370 and downgrading the erstwhile state to a union territory for the purposes of direct central rule to stem the rot. The other three advisors of the LG are K.K. Sharma, Farooq Khan and Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar.
A simple glance at the distribution of portfolios among the four advisors of the Lieutenant Governor Grish Chander Murmu shows that administrative secretaries junior to newly appointed advisor Baseer Ahmad Khan like Simrandeep Singh Secretary to Government Disaster Management, Relief & Rehabilitation, Sheetal Nanda Commissioner Secretary to Government Rural Development Department , M Raju the Secretary to Government Power Development Department and Shiekh Fayaz the Secretary to Government Floriculture Department have to work under him. Before appointing Baseer as advisor to Lieutenant Governor the Government ordered transfers of top five IAS officers of the Principal Secretary rank to ensure that officers seniors to Baseer don’t come under his control. Interestingly the central government’s home ministry ordered the appointment of Baseer Ahmad Khan as fourth advisor Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor days after Jammu and Kashmir high court expressed anguish over the “inordinate delay” in framing of charges in the Gulmarg land scam and sought records from anti-corruption court Baramulla. In this high profile land scam case one of the accused is Baseer Ahmad Khan. On March 4, the high court had sought the status of the case – one of the biggest land scams in J&K – from the anti-corruption court Baramulla, which is hearing the case.
The division bench of Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Rajesh Bindal sought the records in a petition seeking probe into encroachment of state land in J&K, after it was brought to its notice that there has been no headway in the case despite the passing of almost 10 years. “The court directed the special judge of anti-corruption court Baramulla to produce the date wise summary of the proceedings of the case since 2012,” said advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmad, adding that “ the court expressed concern over the “long and inordinate delay” in the framing of charges in the case. “The concern is that there has been no headway on arguments on charge/discharge in the case despite lapse of such a long time,” he said. “Since 2013, the case is pending without charges being framed as highly influential persons are involved in it. They are leaving no stone unturned to scuttle the proceedings.” As then Deputy Commissioner Baramulla, Khan is accused of illegally transferring land worth crores of rupees to several influential persons, including some hoteliers.
In March 2009, the State Vigilance Organisation (now Anti-Corruption Body) had registered a case (FIR No. 08/2009 P/S VOK) against 20 accused, including Khan, then-divisional commissioner of Kashmir Mehbooba Iqbal, then-additional deputy commissioner Baramulla, Farooq Shah and others for misusing official position to transfer the state-owned land at Gulmarg to private persons, in violation of the J&K State Lands (Vesting of Ownership to the Occupants) Act, 2001, also commonly known as the Roshni Act. The Act was implemented in J&K by then government, led by Ghulam Nabi Azad, to confer proprietary rights of state land to occupants to generate resources for setting up hydropower projects in the state, which has vast hydropower potential.
The land, however, was transferred to private persons at Gulmarg and was earmarked for the development of tourist infrastructure. Khan was arrested by the Kashmir Vigilance Organisation under the Prevention of Corruption Act in September 23, 2013, for “willfully” ignoring the information pertaining to the case. But, he was released by the anti-corruption court, Srinagar on bail the same day. At the time of his arrest, Khan was the district commissioner of Kishtwar. He was earlier removed as district commissioner of Srinagar and transferred to Kishtwar, on the direction of the high court. A top official said, the Anti-Corruption Body had moved against Khan after the J&K state government received sanction on August 21, 2013, from the Union government’s Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) for prosecuting him.
On September 26, 2014, the Vigilance Organisation of Kashmir charge sheeted Mehboob Iqbal, Farooq Shah, a Tehsildar, two Naib Tehsildars, a Girdawar, a Patwari, two stamp vendors of Sadar Court Srinagar and nine beneficiaries in the case. As per the charge sheet, the accused public servants, in league with each other, entered into a criminal conspiracy with the beneficiaries and manipulated records to illegally confer ownership rights of prime state land at Gulmarg to the accused, in contravention to the Roshni Act. Advocate Ahmad said the high court has till date on three occasions directed the Baramulla court to expeditiously hear the argument in the case.