Bureaucrats misled Omar on Gul’s DD fraud

Principal Secretary managed favourable answers from Mandi House; RTI now exposes how MLAs, Councilors are barred in DD commissioning

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

JAMMU, Dec 9: When Early Times published a series in March this year to unravel how politicians and bureaucrats were looting taxpayers’ money under the smokescreen of militancy in Jammu & Kashmir---most brazenly in Doordarshan’s Kashir Channel (DD Kashir)---Chief Minister’s Secretariat lost no time to establish that there was nothing wrong in Mr Mubarak Gul’s act of seeking two projects worth Rs 48 Lakh, one each for himself and his son.

CM’s Secretariat managed to get desired answers from Mandi House to its questions craftily drafted by then Principal Secretary to CM, Khursheed Ahmed Ganai. It also extorted a ruling in Mr Gul’s favour from Department of Law in Civil Secretariat and Advocate General.

NC’s MLA, Mubarak Gul, who also happens to be Advisor to Chief Minister and the principal ruling party’s Chief Whip, got up in Legislative Assembly to read out the certificate of his innocence that had been obtained overnight from Sr Director of DD Kashir, Ananya Banerjee. His fellow Advisor to CM, Devender Singh Rana, hurriedly organized a news conference to declare that Legislators and Councilors were entitled by law to appear in all competitions in Government of India’s subsidiaries like Doordarshan.

Jammu-based RTI activist and prominent lawyer, advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, however, has got a completely different answer to the same question from the same DD official, Ananya Banerjee, when he filed an application under the central Right To Information Act 2005 before Directorate General of Doordarshan on 27-04-2010. Ms Banerjee was not only the head of the DD panel that conducted the controversial DD Kashir commissioning process in 2007-09 but also designated Public Information Officer (PIO) for DD Kashir.

Advocate Shakeel drafted a questionnaire of 21 specific questions to get it officially cleared whether the NC’s MLA, Mubarak Gul, and his son, Younis Gul, who was NC’s elected Councilor in Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), had committed any misconduct by way of their appearing in a government competition and subsequently getting DD Kashir’s projects worth Rs 48 Lakh allotted to their proprietary firms, Gulistan Productions and Himalayan Communications.

Advocate Shakeel’s Question No 20 was:

Whether public men (Members of Panchayats and Local Bodies, Members of Legislative Assemblies and Councils, Members of Lok Sabha, Members of Rajya Sabha), elected through a democratic process conducted/ supervised/ regulated by Election Commission of India, who take honorarium/ monthly salaries and other perks, are eligible to compete in the commissioning process of Doordarshan as private producers/proprietors of their business firms, and, thus entitled to do trade with Doordarshan, an organization of Prasar Bharti Broadcasting Corporation of India?

a) If yes, can these public men participate in such competition to be held by DD in future?

b) if no, what action has DD initiated against Mr. Mubarak Gul who happened to be MLA from Assembly segment Iddgah,  Srinagar, for the term November 2002 to November 2008 and November 2008 to November 2014, and his son Mr. Younis Gul, who happens to be an elected corporator from Islamyarbal (Maharaj Ganj Ward) in Srinagar Municipal Corporation for the term February 2005 to February 2010 ?

Ananya Banerjee’s answer was a bold “NO” to part ‘a’ of the question---clearly a huge embarrassment for J&K Chief Minister and his aides. Her answer to part ‘b’ : “The empanelment of Sh Mubarak Gul has been withdrawn and his proposal stands canceled as per guidelines”. Nevertheless, she intriguingly remained silent about Mubarak Gul’s son, Younis Gul, whose membership in SMC and simultaneous contract from Doordarshan were clearly in question.

Answers to the questionnaire under RTI Act 2005 made it abundantly clear that no public representatives, nominated or elected, holding the membership of any Panchayat or Municipal body, Legislative Assembly, Legislative Council, Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, were entitled to participation in any competition for seeking a contract from any Government, semi-government or autonomous organization.

While such an activity is known as trade of a public man with the government---not allowed in any state government and Government of India---it invariably tentamounts to misconduct and disqualification of membership in legislative bodies.

The only advantage for the delinquent in Jammu & Kashmir is that it is a “state of special status” where media is dismissed as nuisance, judiciary does not take suo moto notices, accountability organs---State Information Commission, State Vigilance Organisation and State Accountability Commission--- are either defunct or dysfunctional, and custodians of Constitution and law, from Presiding Officers of Legislature to His Excellency Governor, appear to be programmed to act as mute spectators.

Sequence of developments makes it clear that even after hullabaloo over the NC MLA’s and the Councilor’s fraudulent act of grabbing DD Kashir projects in J&K Assembly and national media in March this year, DD has canceled only the senior Gul’s empanelment and approval of his 8-episode Kashmiri drama serial titled ‘Azla Lon’. It opted silence for several months and has now surreptitiously released allotment of 8-episode Dogri drama serial “Allhar Golli Vir Sepoy” in favour of the junior Gul’s business firm, Himalayan Communications, with approved budget of Rs 24 Lakh.

As Younis Gul is completely illiterate in Dogri language and literature, he has sublet the production to a Jammu-based producer. Scores of contenders, who have long track record in filmmaking and Dogri fiction, have been rendered jobless by DD that wanted to oblige a Kashmiri politician’s green hand son. This is called the importance of being J&K Chief Minister’s Advisor.

END