Speaker orders probe into facts carried by Early Times
CS to hold inquiry into Transport officials’ induction into KAS
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
During Zero House, PDP’s MLA from Bandipore, Nizam-ud-din Bhat, sought Speaker’s attention towards today’s banner lead in Early Times regarding the fraudulent appointment of one Bhumesh Sharma as Junior Assistant in state Transport Department and subsequently his fraudulent induction into KAS. Without being specific, Bhat pointed out that a newspaper had contested Minister incharge Transport Qamar Ali Akhoon’s statement given in Assembly regarding an official’s induction into KAS. He wanted to read out two particular paragraphs of the news story.
Speaker did not allow Bhat to read out the text and instead began complaining that some newspapers had carried “manipulated” news stories in the last few days. He pointed out that some of these stories had maligned even a veteran legislator like Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami with their “false reporting of facts”. He warned that such reports, if complained by members, could lead to action against the reporters. With that, Speaker proceeded to other scheduled business.
Speaker, however, called today’s issue of Early Times and went through it while the proceedings were in progress. Thereafter, he made a suo motto intervention and made it clear that his previous statement should not be treated as his “clean chit” to the officer mentioned in the newspaper report. “I am, hereby, directing Chief Secretary to hold an investigation into the facts carried by the newspaper and, if proved correct, initiate necessary action against the officials involved”, he said. He, nevertheless, did not agree to the suggestion that the Minister incharge Transport had misled the House. He clarified that the Minister had only stated the facts obtained from his subordinate officials.
In today’s issue, Early Times had carried an investigative report about the entry of a former RTO’s son, Bhumesh Sharma, through backdoor into government service and established that his appointment as Junior Assistant by then Transport Commissioner on 10-07-1991 was ab initio illegal. It had been pointed out in the report that Transport Commissioner had no competence to make such an appointment. It had been further pointed out that the vacancy had not been advertised and no interview was conducted. Besides, the incumbent had been shown as Bachelor of Commerce on 10-07-1991 while as his result had been actually declared by University of Jammu Jammu
Early Times had also detailed in the report that same backdoor entrant had been elevated to different ministerial and executive positions and finally inducted into KAS clandestinely by General Administration Department in April 2010 without bothering to examine his initial appointment order. Furthermore, he had been retained in state Transport Department and appointed as Deputy Transport Commissioner. For some time, he also held charge of Member-Secretary State Transport Authority (STA). It was he who had issued as many as 50,000 driving licenses in Doda and Udhampur districts and got a report filed in Daily Diary of Police Station Doda that original records had disappeared in mysterious circumstances during transportation from Udhampur to Doda.
Until yesterday, 703 commuters and holders of fraudulently issued commercial driving licenses had died in scores of road accidents in Doda-Udhampur in the last two years. Yesterday itself, 12 more people died in another such accident in Sudh Mahadev area near Chinani. However, none of the MLAs today raised any question in Assembly as to how a 28-seater minibus was carrying as many as 68 passengers when it met with the accident.
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