Chief Justice Thakur finds his Jammu high school library without books, lab without test tubes; sheds his tears

‘I am indebted to Mohammad Sharief Sahab who taught me Urdu — the language I love and speak with pride’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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JAMMU, Dec 3: When on April 25, 2016, India’s 43^rd Chief Justice Tirath Singh Thakur shed his tears at Delhi’s Vigyan Bhavan in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he had very compelling reasons: 44 per cent judges missing in high courts, 25 per cent in subordinate courts and 19 per cent in the Supreme Court; judges in the busiest courts spending an average of 2.5 minutes to hear a case and about five minutes to decide one; Law Commission of India having cried itself hoarse since 1987, along with 15 successive CJIs in 29 years, about the need to increase the number of courts and judges drastically for justice to have any real meaning but the system having failed to provide necessary replenishment and the shortfall piling up with thousands of lawsuits every day.

But Saturday’s occasion at Central Basic Higher Secondary School in the dense Purani Mandi interior of Jammu had an altogether different reason. Thakur turned nostalgic and emotional at mentioning reminiscences of his school days — how Master Govind Ram created him into a terrific orator; how other teachers taught him drawing and mathematics; and, how Master Mohammad Sharief tutored him Urdu “the language I love and speak with pride and comfort after English”. Several of his teachers, now in 80s and 90s, were in attendance.

In flawless Urdu, Thakur narrated how Govind Ram would give him prize of one Rupee for the best performances in debates and at home father Devi Das would multiply the same by five, in 1960s.

“In South India, people believed that judges could only write eloquent judgments but could deliver a speech. They used to ask me which Convent had brought me up. They looked incredulously at me when I would reveal to them that I was the product of a nondescript, free-education government school in Jammu”, Thakur said with all the punctuations of pride, pathos and nostalgia. For long, his handkerchief failed to mop his eyes and his voice remained choked almost all through the speech.

Notwithstanding his father’s attainments of success — a leading lawyer and subsequently a judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Minister in Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah’s Cabinet, Deputy Chief Minister in Ghulam Mohammad Shah’s government and Governor of Assam — Tirath Singh failed to realise his dream of becoming a student of the most attractive Ranbir Higher Secondary School (Parade Ground).

At Central Basic, like all other students, he would clean the dust from underneath the jute mating and then take a seat. Fifty years later, he said, nothing had changed for good at the school situated at a stone’s throw from the house of his host and Minister of State for Education Priya Sethi.

Even while accepting Mrs. Sethi’s request to adopt the forlorn school that created India’s 4rd Chief Justice, Thakur was terribly pained to notice that little had changed there. “I am afraid this premises of knowledge and learning would soon be converted into a shopping complex or a car parking. That would be the saddest day of my life”, he said.

“In the last 25-30 years, we have seen challenges confronting the education. The elements, who want people to remain blind, burn down schools in Kashmir. Fortunately, we are better off here. But what has changed? My esteemed teachers here will bear me out that its condition was far better than what it is today. The desks were newer and stronger; the classrooms were more comfortable; the library was packed with books and the laboratory with equipment. Today, I see a library but no books, a laboratory but no flames and test tubes”, Justice Thakur said while pledging to attract the Corporate Social Responsibility of some friends’ businesses for the school’s development after his retirement on January 4, 2017.

“It’s very difficult for a man like me to seek help for my old school’s development. But as an alumnus, I will least hesitate as I feel whatever I am today, I am because of this institute of learning”, he asserted.

END

[Published in STATE TIMES of December 4, 2016]

Congress activist becomes victim of PDP-BJP coalition’s first 'political murder' in J&K

GA Mir demands judicial probe in ex-Sarpanch's death; Police claim he snatched away SPO’s gun, fired on Army, got killed in retaliation; family calls it cold blooded murder

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Dec 2: Custodial killings and fake encounters have been unheard of in Kashmir since the day then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad put an officer of the rank of SSP behind bars, alongwith a dozen-odd Policemen of operational background, in the year 2007. But, shrouded in mystery, a Congress activist’s death in Army’s firing, in the Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) President Ghulam Ahmad Mir’s home constituency of Dooru in Anantnag district on Thursday evening, has stirred a hornets’ nest in the political circles. Key opposition parties have invariably called it “custodial killing” and demanded judicial enquiry.

For 24 hours after the shootout, Army did not issue any statement even as some newspapers quoted unnamed officials, claiming that Sajjad Hussain Malik (37) of Batgund, Dooru, got killed when he opened fire on troops from his AK-47 rifle. Even J&K Police chose to ignore all reports until Friday morning when a spokesman of Zonal Police Headquarters in Srinagar claimed that the detainee Sajjad alias Bitta Malik “decamped with an AK rifle along with one magazine from Police Station Dooru”.

“After firing some shots near the market, and taking advantage of the darkness, he managed to escape towards Zamalgam. On way near Cherikari, he fired towards an Army patrol. The fire was retaliated. In the exchange of fire, Shabir Malik got killed. The deceased was a released militant and a history sheeter, who was already arrested in militancy cases in various Police Stations”, said the Police statement.

DIG South Kashmir, Nitish Kumar, in a telephonic conversation with STATE TIMES, maintained that Malik snatched away a Constable’s AK-47 rifle, fled, fired upon an Army patrol and got killed in retaliation. “Under the current circumstances, nobody among forces or Police can even think about killing a detainee in custody or a fake encounter. These allegations are nothing but rubbish”. DIG added: “There were FIRs against him. He had been called to Police Station for questioning and yesterday arrested”.

Malik’s family offers an altogether different story.

According to the family, and many of the residents in Batgund and Dooru, Malik had been detained some 15 years back on the allegation of being a “militant helper”. “He never picked up a gun or went underground. One day, he was arrested and booked under PSA. High Court quashed his detention and he was released. Nothing was recovered from his possession”, said Malik’s elder sister Mehbooba, who is married in Nowgam village.

Father of one daughter and six sons — the youngest, Luqman, being just one-year old — Malik played key role in the election campaign of Congress state chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir in 2008. Mir defeated PDP candidate and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s close relative Syed Farooq Andrabi who reversed the defeat in 2014 and was subsequently inducted by Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti as a Minister of State early this year.

Malik joined Congress formally in 2009 and later contested Panchayat election in 2011. With a thumping majority, he was returned as Sarpanch from Batgund (A).

The July 8, 2016, encounter at Bamdora (Kokernag), in which three militants including Hizbul Mujahideen’s poster boy Burhan Wani, got killed, generated an unceasing spell of turbulence in the Valley. Towards the end of August, the separatist leadership, prominently led by hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani, called for “total social boycott” against all the pro-India political leaders. MLAs, MPs, as also the people having served as Panches and Sarpanches, were threatened by the separatist leaders and militants to quit politics and apologise publicly or else face the consequences.

Malik was among the five ex-Panches and ex-Sarpanches, who announced on a dais in Verinag quitting pro-Indian politics for good. Like hundreds all over the Valley, they pledged their “support” to the “freedom movement”. Days later, he was booked under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. In September, when a school building was torched by unidentified persons in his village, he was booked for the charge of arson and arrested.

“In both the cases, courts granted him bail as Police didn’t have any evidence to establish the charges levelled against him. Our relatives, accompanied by some local PDP leaders, went to SHO to seek Sajjad’s release. He made them shuttle for weeks. Every time, he expressed his helplessness and said that he could not release him until he would get a letter or telephonic order from the local MLA of PDP (Minister Farooq Andrabi). He was subjected to severe physical and mental torture for two months of his illegal detention and pressurised to shift his loyalty to the PDP MLA. When he declined, they apparently hatched up a plan and executed it yesterday evening. They eliminated him in cold blood”, Mehbooba said.

Malik’s businessman friend Mohammad Iqbal said that even the two teenage sons of his sister Shabnam Ara — Owais and Nasir — were booked and arrested in false cases during the current turmoil to add pressure on the family. Shabnam’s husband Mohammad Shafi Wani had passed away in 2001 and she has been living with her parents. “This poor family was forced to sell off entire land around their house to generate the money they spent on securing bail from the court. Still, Sajjad was never released”, Iqbal added.

The family members, and all of their neighbours who spoke to this newspaper, claimed invariably that on Thursday evening SPO Mashoq took Malik out of the Police Station at Dooru, put him on the pillion of his motorcycle, handed over his AK-47 to Malik and drove him to the Sub District Hospital. Malik is said to have complained of headache. Previously too, he had been carried to the same hospital twice but five to six armed Policemen had escorted him. 

On the hospital premises, SPO Mashoq fired a shot on the ground. It was followed by three or four gun shots near Azam Shah Sahib Masjid, in close vicinity of the hospital. The SPO drove towards Malik’s village Batgund. At Aagnoo, both were stopped by Army. While as the SPO was let off and allowed to return to the Police Station on his motorcycle, Malik, according to the family and many residents, was "eliminated in a fake encounter".

DIG Nitish Kumar, however, insisted that Malik was not in detention for two months. He said that he had been released on bail and had been called for questioning on Thursday. “After he was formally arrested, he snatched away a constable’s AK-47, escaped, fired on Army and got killed in retaliation”, DIG asserted.

“A judicial enquiry will bring out everything. If the Government has nothing to hide, why don’t they concede our demand and order a judicial probe. Had the Army opened fire, mistaking them as militants, the SPO too would have died. They have been spotted by scores of eyewitnesses on the SPO’s bike in and around the hospital and later on the road to Aagnoo”, G.A. Mir told STATE TIMES. Yet another resident claimed that the real culprit, who was involved in torching of the school building in Batgund, owed allegiance to the PDP. "The MLA got him released in just three days", he asserted.

Meanwhile, National Conference, CPI (M) and Geelani-led Hurriyat have also expressed doubts on the Police version and demanded independent inquiry into the Congress activist’s killing in a controversial shootout.

END

Lal Singh harnesses a dead horse to kill a dying horse

Not a single Forestry graduate allowed to enter SFC; no recruitment of technical staff in 28-30 years

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 25: In a radical decision, Jammu and Kashmir’s ebullient Forest Minister Choudhary Lal Singh has taken away the charm from Territorial Forest Department and added some sheen to the nearly defunct Jammu and Kashmir State Forest Corporation (SFC). Earlier this year, entire job of extraction of timber and distribution of timber among the people on concessional rates was shifted from Forest Department to SFC “in order to streamline” the functioning of the twin organisations.

In the current month, SFC has begun the task though it is only scantily resourceful to operate. Not a single cubic foot of timber was distributed in Kashmir valley this year, mainly due to the over four-month-long street turbulence after July 8. But that is not the only reason as SFC has no sufficient technical staff because of total freeze of recruitment in the Corporation in the last 28-30 years.

Interestingly, even as around 800 candidates with graduation, post-graduation and doctorate in Forestry have been running from pillar to post in search of an inferior job of a Forest Guard, clerk or Rehbar-e-Taleem teacher, not a single person with B SC Forestry has been ever appointed against a technical post in SFC.

SFC is a statutory Corporation established under the J&K State Forest Corporation Act, 1978. The erstwhile Government Lumbering Undertaking (GLU), which used to carry out extraction and sale of timber in the State, was merged into the State Forest Corporation. The objectives of the Corporation are “better preservation, supervision and development of forests and better exploitation of forest produce”.

The functions of the Corporation are defined in the J & K SFC Act, as undertaking removal and disposal of trees and exploitation of forest resources entrusted to it by the Government; undertaking research programmes relating to forest and forest products and render technical advice to Government on matters relating to forestry; managing, maintaining and developing such forests as are transferred and entrusted to it by the Government till these are handed back to the Government.

The deficiency of technical staff in SFC can be imagined from the fact that out of the sanctioned strength of 21 Divisional Managers (DMs), it is left with just 5 incumbents. Two more of them are retiring in the next two years. The last appointment of DMs has taken place 30 years back in 1985-86. None of the incumbents has a superior technical qualification over B.A. and B. SC (with DDR) but all of them are posted on superior positions of ‘incharge’ Deputy General Managers (DGMs).

Out of the sanctioned strength of 40 posts of Assistant Divisional Managers, SFC is now left with just 11 incumbents. Even as 29 posts are lying vacant, no recruitment has taken place in the last 30 years. All the incumbents are posted on stop gap arrangement against superior positions.

Out of the sanctioned strength of 50 Range Managers (RMs), SFC is now left with just 19 incumbents as no recruitment has been carried out after 1988. Four more are due to retire in the next one year. In brazen violation of Supreme Court of India’s special directions to J&K Government, all the 19 RMs are functioning as “incharge DMs” since long. The highest qualification of these incumbents is Matriculation to B.A. with in-service DDR.

Out of the sanctioned strength of 500 Block Managers, SFC has currently a total of 325 incumbents. Successive state governments have not allowed even a single of the 800 unemployed Forestry graduates and post-graduates to enter the SFC as Block Managers, a post equivalent to Forester in Forest Department.

All the 9 incumbent Assistant General Managers (AGMs) are operating on superior positions of “incharge Divisional Managers”. Seven of them are due to reach superannuation in the next 6 years. Their highest qualification is 12^th pass to MA, with one incumbent being BA LLB. During service, these incumbents have also done SFC or KFC training course.

Currently, SFC has only 5 Deputy General Managers (DGMs) who are all functioning against superior positions of “incharge GMs” in violation of the Supreme Court of India directions against continuation of stop-gap arrangement beyond six months. Of the 5 incumbents, 4 are retiring in the next one year and the last one in 2020. These incumbents are simple B Sc or B Sc Agriculture with in-service training course DDR. As the last of them has been appointed in 1985, SFC has not made any recruitment in the last 31 years.

As regards the top most position of General Managers, next only to Managing Director, SFC has only 6 incumbents. While as some of the GM posts are often left vacant, some are borrowed from the already deficient Forest Department. Out of 6 of the SFC’s own GMs, 5 are retiring in the next four years. Here again the last incumbent’s recruitment has taken place in 1986. Of the 6 incumbents, two are M Sc in Zoology and Botany, three are B Sc Agriculture and one is simple B Sc. During their service career, they have done SFS or DDR course.

“Clearly, SFC has to be shut permanently in the next five years as no Government has carried out fresh recruitment of technical staff in the last 28 to 30 years. It appears that the vested interests of politicians and bureaucrats are mainly responsible for drying out of the technical staff in SFC”, said a retired MD of SFC.

Chairman SFC and Minister incharge Forest Lal Singh could not be reached for his comment.

END

[Published in today's STATE TIMES]

Govt still undecided about collection of fee by pvt schools for period of turmoil

Chaos among parents but empowered committee receives just 2 complaints in Kashmir, both from parents of DPS Srinagar

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 22: Even as chaos and confusion is prevailing among hundreds of thousands of the parents in Kashmir valley, Mehbooba Mufti government is still undecided over the fees private educational institutes are demanding and charging for more than four months of total shutdown.

Almost all the government-run and private schools and colleges remained closed for administrative and curricular activity for 130 days after the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s killing in an encounter triggered off street turbulence in the Valley. While as curfew remained in force continuously for over a month, the separatist-sponsored shutdown went on without any daytime relaxation till November 19.

While around 90 persons got killed and around 15,000 (including some 7,000 Police and security forces personnel) sustained injuries and fractures, more than 75 vehicles and 35 school buildings were torched by unruly mobs during the period of mayhem. In all, more than 15,000 vehicles were damaged in stone pelting, mostly by the shutdown vigilantes tasked to enforce the separatists’ call.

Chairman of the Committee for Fixation of Fee Structure of Private Educational Institutions in Jammu and Kashmir, Justice (retd.) Hakeem Imtiyaz Hussain, told STATE TIMES that a decision whether to collect the fees from the students for the turmoil period was to be taken by the State Government. According to him, no such decision had been taken or communicated either to the private schools or the parents or the High Court (which is hearing a PIL on the subject) or the Committee.

“A day or two before the Durbar Move from Srinagar last month, there were continual deliberations in the Government’s School Education Department on this issue. High Court too has asked the Government to explain its stand. We are told that the Government has assured the Court that it would make a considered opinion in consultation with the Committee. But, till date, this matter has not been referred to us either by the Government or by the High Court”, Justice Hussain asserted.

“We are appropriately seized of the matter and well aware that both, the parents as well as the school operators, are in distress and conflict over this issue. However, just two parents of the students of just one school (DPS Athwajan, Srinagar) approached us with formal complaints. In response to our notice, DPS management contended that our Committee had no competence to decide whether or not the fee was to be charged by the private schools. They pleaded that the Committee was empowered only to regulate the fee structures of the recognised private educational institutions. Nevertheless, the DPS management made a commitment in writing that it would examine each representation on case-to-case basis and grant concessions wherever warranted”, Justice Hussain revealed.

With regard to the months of September and October 2014, when parts of the Valley were paralysed due to devastating floods, the Committee had received as many as 300 representations. Justice Hussain said that 270 of these complaints had been decided. “Relief was granted to the students living in flood-affected areas but denied to those who lived in normal areas. We have still around 30 of such petitions under consideration”, Justice Hussaid said, pointing out, inter alia, to the directions of the High Court issued after the floods.

“We are facing a host of hardships in determination of matters and delivering justice. There are lacunae which prevent us from taking up such matters. But, the Government is now expected to bring necessary legislation. A law on the pattern of Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Delhi is actively under consideration of the political executive. It will give necessary powers to our Committee and we will be in a position to deliver justice in a better way”, Justice Hussain added.

The head of the empowered Committee, that has Commissioner-Secretary School Education as Member-Secretary besides a chartered accountant and a representative from the J&K Board of School Education as Members, said that all the private educational institutes recognised by the Government and operating in Jammu and Kashmir, including those teaching curriculum of Central Board School Education, were bound to operate their fee structures with necessary approval of the Committee.

 “But unfortunately out of 6,000 schools, just 300-odd have submitted their record and sought our approval. We have taken up this issue with High Court as well as the Government and emphasised that there was no fun of having such a Committee if the fee structure of all the private schools was not to be regulated. On a positive note, some changes have been made and others are in the offing”, Justice Hussain said.

The Chairman revealed that, in recent past, Government had made it mandatory for all the private educational institutes to get their registration/recognition revised and revalidated after every one or two years.

“We have made it clear to the Government that two different committees, comprising officers of the rank of Joint Director of Education and other officials, should be constituted for this purpose in Kashmir and Jammu divisions. These should essentially operate under the control of our Committee. We will ensure that registration/recognised is renewed strictly in accordance to the guidelines and without any extraneous influence or intervention”, Justice Hussain asserted.

Asked why the issue of charging the fee for the turmoil period had been lying in limbo for long, Justice Hussain said that Commissioner-Secretary Education, Directors of School Education in Kashmir and Jammu besides BOSE authorities had got entangled with the examinations of Class 10 and 12, besides resuming operation of the closed down schools in border areas of Jammu and Durbar Move for about a month. “We are hopeful that the Government will either take a decision or refer this issue to our Committee. We will examine it in view of arguments from both, the parents as well as the school owners, and take a judicious decision”, Justice Hussain said.

END

[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]

J&K Govt’s 3 senior officers seek de-induction from IAS

Pervez Khateeb, Sarmad Hafeez and Farooq Lone ‘not satisfied’ with 2009 as their year of allotment

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 20: Three of the senior officers of the Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS), who had been inducted into the prestigious Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the year 2014, have sought repatriation to the State service while complaining that their service before induction into the Technical Quota of KAS in the year 2000 had not been counted in fixation of their year of allotment into the IAS.

Sources in the State bureaucracy revealed to STATE TIMES that Commissioner Commercial Taxes, Paraiz Iqbal Khateeb, Labour Commissioner, Sheikh Sarmad Hafeez, and Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar, Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone, have submitted a representation to the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, with a copy to the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) of the Government of India, seeking de-induction from IAS and repatriation to the KAS.

While the IAS service regulator, DOPT, was still processing the representation, a favourable communication from Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s government in 2015 recommended review of the year of allotment of IAS in favour of the three officers, stressing that their pre-KAS induction service should be counted. Coming from different State service streams, the three officers had been inducted into the TQ of KAS in the year 2000.

It is for the first time that any officer of the J&K Government has sought repatriation to the KAS and opted to forgo the glittering IAS after induction into the all-India service. Over a decade back, then Secretary to Government and now Cabinet Minister for Education Naeem Akhtar’s decision to spurn the IAS, reportedly for its “Indian” tag, had hogged headlines. Even thereafter, KAS and non-KAS officers had been jostling for their induction into the IAS.

Even after the J&K Government raised the age of superannuation for KAS and all state government employees from 58 to 60 years, a Chief Secretary recommended IAS induction for 10 incumbents, including some friends and relatives, and sent a special messenger with the courier to New Delhi. However, allotment of over a dozen slots of Secretary to senior KAS officers, coupled with hike in the age of retirement, has made the State service distinctly attractive, though it has irked the regular recruits (RRs) of IAS.

Placed in the grade of Special Secretary (Junior Administrative Grade: Rs 15,600 — Rs 39,100 GP Rs 7,600) before their induction in IAS, the three officers would have been by now in the grade of Secretary (Selection Grade: Rs 37,400 — Rs 67,000 GP Rs 8,700) and Commissioner-Secretary (Super Time Scale: Rs 37,400 — Rs 67,000 GP Rs 10,000) like a number of their juniors and at least one of them (Sarmad Hafeez) would have risen to the rank of Principal Secretary (Higher Administrative Grade: Rs 67,000 —  Rs 79,000) before his retirement. The induction into the IAS has only brought them down to the rank of Additional Secretary (Senior Time Scale: Rs 15,600 — Rs 39,100 GP Rs 6,600).  

“We had expected 2006 as our year of allotment into the IAS. Unfortunately, our pre-KAS induction service was not counted and 2009 was fixed as our year of allotment. In KAS, many of our batch mates and juniors have been elevated to the rank of Secretary to Government and placed in selection grade (37400—67000 GP 8700 and 37400—67000 GP 10,000). Some of them will retire as Principal Secretary to Government. Now, only one of us (Sarmad) will reach the rank of Commissioner-Secretary and two others (Khateeb and Lone) will retire as Special Secretary because of being close to superannuation. What’s the fun of this ornamental rank of IAS that reduces us to the rank Additional Secretary?” said one of the three applicants. He pointed out that Mohammad Saleem Shishgar “who is far junior to us all in KAS” was now a full-fledged Secretary to Government and had been holding the key portfolio of IT and Technical Education. 

Sources in General Administration Department (GAD) confirmed that the three State officers had sought de-induction from IAS and repatriation to KAS. “However, we haven’t received any communication in this regard from the DOPT, even as we have subsequently recommended that the three complaining officers’ service prior to their induction into KAS in the year 2000 be counted and their year of the allotment into IAS be fixed afresh. As and when this happens, it will benefit not only the three applicant officers but also others of the KAS to be inducted into the IAS in future”, said a GAD official.

“If Government of India does not acquiesce into our proposal, hardly any J&K officer, to be inducted into IAS in future, would reach the rank of Principal Secretary”. In other words, all the superior bureaucratic positions of Principal Secretary, Financial Commissioner and Chief Secretary would remain occupied by the IAS RRs, mostly from other States.

END

[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]

RBI turns down relief to businesses as J&K Govt fails to declare Kashmir ‘riot-hit’ in 2016 turbulence

Did BJP botch up PDP’s plan to ‘extort’ concessions for the Valley traders who supported Hurriyat’s shutdown call for 4 months?

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 16: Amid speculations of differences between the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) over lending some assistance to the turbulence-hit Kashmiri traders and industrialists, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected the J&K State Level Bankers Committee’s request with the argument that the Mehbooba Mufti government had failed to declare any district or area of the State as “affected by riots or disturbances”.

Well-placed sources in New Delhi revealed to STATE TIMES that the then Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank Ltd (JKB), Mushtaq Ahmad, in his capacity as Convenor of J&K SLBC had written a letter to RBI on October 1, 2016, seeking restructuring and resettlement of the loan liquidations in favour of the Kashmir-based businesses on account of the summer turbulence that crippled life and froze entire business activity for over three months.

The RBI examined the proposal for over a month as the new Chairman of JKB and Convener of SLBC, Parvez Ahmad, too pursued the same assiduously, claiming that the State economy had suffered losses worth over Rs 15,000 crores due to the turbulence that was triggered off by the Hizbul Mujahideen militant Burhan Wani’s killing in an encounter on July 8. Finally the proposal was categorically rejected on the plea that the coalition government had not declared any district as riot-affected.

In his letter No: 342/03.01.17/2016-17 dated November 15, 2016, RBI’s General Manager, S.C. Sharma, wrote to the new Convener of J&K SLBC and Chairman JKB Parvez Ahmad, that “in terms of our Master Directions on Natural Calamities 2016 dated July 01, 2016, only genuine persons duly identified by the state administration as having been affected by the riots/disturbances are provided assistance”.

“In light of our circular, it is imperative that the areas/people affected are identified to consider for the special dispensation. As the district collector/ state government has not yet declared any area as affected by riots or disturbances, the special dispensation required by J&K Bank (SLBC convenor, J&K State) does not fall under our circular”, the RBI GM communicated to Chairman JKB.

Asked why the J&K Government had not declared any district or entire Kashmir valley as “affected by riots and disturbances”, that could have facilitated the RBI to acquiesce into the JKB proposal, Commissioner-Secretary Finance Navin Choudhary claimed that he had no knowledge of the proposal having been turned down. “As of now, concessions are accorded for natural calamities. Admittedly, it’s a man-made disaster but a matter of debate. The State Government as well as the businesses in Kashmir have been badly affected due to the turmoil. We have lost 50% of the revenue. But let’s wait for the RBI decision”, Mr Choudhary told STATE TIMES on telephone.

Did the State Government have any proposal to declare any district or the entire Kashmir valley as affected by the riots and disturbances? “I am not aware of it. The State Home Department may have such knowledge”, Mr Choudhary asserted.

Principal Secretary Home, R.K. Goyal, said that there was “absolutely no proposal” under the government’s consideration to declare any district or the entire Kashmir valley as affected by riots and disturbances.

Additional Secretary in Chief Minister’s Secretariat and Director of Information, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, too asserted that “to the best of my knowledge” there was no proposal under consideration to declare Kashmir as affected by riots and disturbances. “Yesterday only there was a threadbare discussion in a high level official meeting on the losses and damages suffered by the people and the government. But, nothing like notifying any area as riot-affected surfaced in the deliberations”, Dr Choudhary said.

Commissioner-Secretary Finance Navin Choudhary, nevertheless, asserted that the State Government had decided to provide some relief to the traders and businesspersons who would come forward for resettlement of their tax payment subject to the condition that they deposit the first of the six fixed instalments within 30 days. He said that Finance Department had notified SROs 360, 361 and 362 dated November 13, 2016, for the benefit of the defaulter traders who had failed to pay their sales and other taxes over the years. “We are not charging any interest or penalties from them”, he added.

Bureaucratic and political sources, however, insisted that some leaders and Ministers of the PDP were strongly in favour of obtaining some relief, on the pattern of the floods of September 2014, for the Valley-based traders and entrepreneurs while pointing out that the “miscreants” had burned down factories and felled orchards and all the shops and transport industry had been grounded to a halt for four months. However, their counterparts in the BJP opposed the idea with the argument that Kashmir’s traders had publicly supported the Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s shutdown call and offered to give “sacrifices” for achieving Azadi.

Kashmir’s traders and businesspersons, according to the BJP Ministers and leaders, did not deserve any amnesty or relief from the banks or the government.

END

[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]

Big depositors under scanner as Rs 5,000 crore dumped in all bank branches in J&K

60% deposits in Jammu, 40% in Kashmir in the last four days

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, Nov 13: Different agencies of the Government of India as well as the Government of Jammu and Kashmir have put all the big depositors under their scanner even as the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes worth Rs 5,000 crore have been deposited in the branches of different banks operating in Jammu and Kashmir in the last four days.

Officials of the Corporate Communication Department of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank pleaded that the guidelines from the Centre had barred all individual banks to share respective figures with media. Besides, compilation of the entire statistics on regional and State basis was “not possible for the moment” as it was a massive and hectic procedure changing every second. They said that some statistics could be compiled and the system streamlined in the next days, with the advantage of the first bank holiday on Monday.

Well-placed sources in the state Finance Department, however, claimed that total volume of the deposits in different branches of all the banks operating in Jammu and Kashmir was “around Rs 5,000 crore” since morning of November 10 to 1800 hours on November 13. Of this, around Rs 2,500 crore has been deposited in different branches of the Jammu & Kashmir Bank operating in the State. According to these knowledgeable sources, 60% of the deposits have been reported in Jammu division and 40% in Kashmir division.

Sources said that aggregate deposits worth Rs 2,800 crore had landed in all branches of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank in the entire country on the first two days of the business on November 10 and 11.

Chairman J&K Bank, Pervez Ahmad, too did not respond to the calls and text messages delivered on his mobile phone from this newspaper. While as Senior President Business, S.K. Bhat, pleaded that he was on a tour outside the State and “not in a position to share the details”, Vice President in Strategy and Business Development Division, Tabbasum Nazir, insisted that the statistics could be made available only by her bank’s Corporate Communication Department.

Commissioner-Secretary Finance, Naveen Choudhary, told STATE TIMES that it was none of the State Government’s business to monitor deposits of the demonetised currency tenders. He, however, asserted that the Union Government’s decision had come as a boon to the J&K Bank as many of the defaulters were coming forward to liquidate their loans and revive their bad loan accounts.

Officials holding key positions in Finance and Police departments, nevertheless, revealed that a host of agencies from the State and the Central governments were keeping a vigil on the big depositors to ascertain the quantum of the parallel economy in the militancy-ravaged State. Sleuths from Intelligence Bureau, Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax Department to the State Police’s CID and CIK wings are understood to have planted their men in different bank branches besides activating their sources and contacts in the sections tabulating information on day-to-day basis in different banks.

“As of now nothing significant has been detected, though many of the people who have rarely visited a bank are coming forward with sizeable deposits. We have learned that some people have roped in scores of their acquaintances who deposit cash below Rs 2,50,000 each in their accounts to escape the IT eye. Some people, including religious and political leaders, are managing deposits in the bank accounts of political parties, religious bodies, charitable trusts and NGOs claiming the same as donations. It will take us time to learn about exact source of such deposits”, said an official.

According to him, property dealers, tour and travel operators, hoteliers, fast food businesses, marriage hall operators besides lawyers, architects and doctors in private practice, who normally hide their income and deposit money in different benami ventures, could be the worst sufferers.

Meanwhile, like all other States, most of the ATMs in Jammu and Kashmir turned dry several time a day in the last four days as the cash calibrated into the machines in denomination of Rs 100 notes exhausted within hours. Two ATMs of the State Bank of India in Jawahar Nagar Chowk, one located inside the bank building, were found cashless several times on Saturday. However, cash was available in both the ATMs of the J&K Bank in Jawahar Nagar and Lalmandi without break.

Government of India tonight enhanced the limit of the daily withdrawals from ATMs from Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,500 each account holder. Limit of withdrawal against cheque or withdrawal slip was enhanced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12,000 a day and from Rs 20,000 to Rs 24,000 a week while as the limit of exchanging the demonetised notes was hiked from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 a day. This will be operational till November 18.

END

[Published in today’s STATE TIMES]