Over 2,000 unauthorised appointments made in Local Bodies in 2009 and 2010


Tangmarg protests land lease to pvt cellphone company

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jan 5: Leasing out a piece of prime land to a private
cellphone company by Municipal Committee Tangmarg today evoked a
protest as residents and traders demanded construction of a shopping
complex or any other public utility on the site. Demonstrators leveled
serious allegations of corruption and unfair means against the
Executive Officer and said that the public servant had been serving
the politicians, not the masses. Meanwhile, Early Times has collected
documentary evidence to establish that in addition to 5,000 illegal
appointments in 2002-06 period, nearly 2,000 people have been
appointed in different municipal bodies in the state during Mr Omar
Abdullah’s government in 2009 and 2010 without any authority and
competence through backdoor.

Residents and shopkeepers today protested against Tangmarg Municipal
Committee Executive Officer Ghulam Rasool Shah’s activity in the
matter of leasing out a piece of prime land near Gole Market to a
private telecommunications company allegedly on kickbacks. They
complained that Shah had been serving the interest of certain
politicians who were hand-in-glove with officials of the cellphone
company in usurping the prime land. They demanded Housing and Urban
Development Department and Tourism Department to raise a shopping
complex or any other public utility facility at the proposed site of a
cellphone tower.

“Shah has spent most of his time in arranging NOCs and other documents
for a building complex that has come up ahead of J&K Bank branch on
Tangmarg-Gulmarg Road in 2009-10 and belongs to an influential
politician”, one of the shopkeepers, namely Ghulam Mohammad Bhat,
said. He alleged that Shah was presently making all preparations of
the illegal allotment of a restaurant in favour of the politician. He
said that Tangmarg Municipal Committee had completed construction of
the restaurant at Gulmarg with the expenditure of Rs 45 Lakh.

Bhat further complained that one particular builder, namely Javed
Math, was currently raising another unauthorized complex near J&K Bank
branch and it was also being constructed for the local politicians. He
claimed that there was no permission for these constructions from the
competent authority.

Director Local Bodies, Kashmir, Farooq Reenzu, did not respond to
repeated phone calls but officials at the Directorate confirmed that
papers of none of the said structures had been forwarded for necessary
approval.

Meanwhile, Early Times has managed to collect specific details and
documentary evidence of 60 illegal and unauthorized appointments which
have been made clandestinely by two Executive Officers and President
of Kunzar Municipal Committee in the year 2010 against cash payment of
Rs 2.00 Lakh from each beneficiary. While as former Executive Officer
Kunzar Municipal Committee (a town on Srinagar-Tangmarg Road), Imtiyaz
Ahmed Dar has made 49 of such fraudulent appointments, his successor
Ghulam Rasool Shah (now posted as Executive Officer Tangmarg Municipal
Committee) has made 10 appointments.

Those fraudulently appointed by Imtiyaz Ahmed Dar include his wife,
Parveena Akhtar, who has been appointed as Computer Assistant in
November 2009 but shown to have been appointed in 2007. She has not
attended her office even for a single day.

During his yearlong tenure as Executive Officer of Kunzar Municipal
Committee from November 2009 to November 2010, Gh Rasool Shah has
appointed 10 persons. He has personally issued orders of appointment
in favour of two persons, namely Aatifaq Ahmed Mir and Azad Ahmed
Bhat. He has fraudulently recorded “approval” of former President of
Kunzar Municipal Committee Abdul Kareem Dar six months after the
latter expired his term in March 2010. Dar has been given a particular
share in lieu of putting his signatures. Those illegally appointed by
Shah include his brother-in-law Irshad Ahmed Shah, brother’s
sister-in-law Aaliya Assad and relatives of some employees of KMC.

Officials at Finance Department as well as Housing and Urban
Development Department at Civil Secretariat in Jammu told Early Times
that there was “blanket ban” on such appointments and there was no
question of such recruitments during Omar Abdullah-led coalition
government in 2009 and 2010. They asserted that stringent action would
be initiated against the officials involved in such fraudulently made
appointments. They made it clear that neither the Presiding Officer of
a municipal body nor Executive Officers, Secretaries and other
officials were competent by law to issue such orders or make any
payments as salary to such illegally engaged persons.

Deputy Chief Minister and Minister incharge Housing and Urban
Development Department, Tara Chand, too did not respond to phone calls
but officials in his Personal Section said that 5,000 illegal
appointments had been made by different Executive Officers,
Secretaries and Administrators during PDP-Congress regime in 2002-08
and a detailed inquiry was already underway. They too claimed that no
illegal appointments had been made in 2009 and 2010.

However, Early Times is in possession of documentary evidence to prove
that in addition to 5,000 unauthorised appointments in Mufti Sayeed’s
and Ghulam Nabi Azad’s government, over 2,000 fresh illegal
appointments have been made fraudulently in around 100 municipal
bodies all over the state in Mr Omar Abdullah’s government in 2009 and
2010. Unauthorised appointments made in Kunzar Municipal Committee in
2009 and 2010 are being published as a sample for the Government’s as
well as peoples’ information from tomorrow.

END