Governor pulls up top J&K officials for ‘inefficiency’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Sep 1: Governor Narendra Nath Vohra is understood to have pulled up some top ranking State officials for their failure to restore normalcy and order and for continued suspension of the academic activity in the turbulent Kashmir valley.

Well-placed sources disclosed to STATE TIMES that on Wednesday, Governor called some top officials and asked them why they had failed to restore order and open the educational institutions, particularly the Universities and Colleges in Kashmir. All the educational institutions have remained closed in Valley continuously since July 8 when Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani got killed in an encounter.

On two occasions, State’s Education Minister Naeem Akhtar announced on television that Government had ordered opening of all the educational institutions. In desperation, he once publicly beseeched separatist leaders Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik to lend the Government "support" in keeping the educational institutions open. However, not a single school, college or University could be opened for administrative or academic work in the last two months.

Sources said that Governor asked a senior officer tersely that he should either deliver or quit. Subsequently, one of the Vice Chancellors attempted to rope in a separatist leader so as to convince him for exempting some colleges and universities from the shutdown. However, the separatist leader refused to oblige the VC.

Sources said that Governor was “terribly perturbed” over the Government’s failure to re-establish control on certain important roads, including the inter-district connectivity and Srinagar-Jammu national highway. He is said to have received reports that the separatist youths, carrying lathis and stones, had been stopping the vehicles, checking I-cards and frisking and questioning those travelling in private cars to find if any Government employees or Policemen were attending duties. A large number of the Government employees have been humiliated, harassed and beaten up for violating the separatists' shutdown call. No government agency has come forward with any reassurance to the employees, forcing them to remain absent from duties.

Scores of the private vehicles have been allegedly damaged in stone pelting.

Interestingly, it is for the first time that some newly posted Police officers refused to take possession of the government vehicles. Almost all of them are currently using private vehicles and many of them have made fake I-cards as civilians for fear of the crowd attacks.

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[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]