| Who is to promote, art, culture and language in JK? | | Short listed are not from Cultural Academy | | Akshay Azad
Jammu, Aug 27: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has apparently made Jammu and Academy of Art Culture and Languages (JKAACL) its personal fiefdom, as instead of appointing deserving officials from within the Academy as Secretary, he is attempting to adjust a blue eyed person.
Astoundingly, the Search committee, constituted by government, has shortlisted five persons for the post, none of whom is from Academy as out of five, two are retired officers, an IFS officer, a simple dramatist and a research fellow of Kashmir University.
Sources informed Early Times that according to the constitution of JKAACL, president of Academy, Chief Minister with the consultation of state government, is empowered to appoint the Secretary and since decades, Secretary had been appointed from within the officials of Academy.
"Since Omar Abdullah has assumed the charge of Chief Minister, he has changed the precedence and has started appointing Secretaries from outside the Academy, according to his whims and fancies", sources alleged.
They further said that on one hand Chief Minister had banned rehabilitation of retired officers but he himself had given go ahead to the appointment of Khalid Bashir, a retired bureaucrat, as Secretary of Academy.
"The academy is full of officers with huge academic qualifications and specializations in various disciplines including Art, Culture and Languages, but instead of appointing them, Chief Minister had ordered constitution of search committee of five members allegedly to appoint his blue-eyed officers", sources said, adding that Search Committee had three unsuccessful meetings and despite strong objections by a member of Committee, a five member panel was finalized in the fourth meeting of Search committee.
Sources alleged that all the members in the panel, finalized by Search Committee, were outsiders in the Academy and have no or very little knowledge about the Art, Culture and Languages.
"Aziz Hazmi, Bashir Arif, Dr. Farooq Rayaz, Ayash Arif and OP Vidhyarthi are the names reportedly finalized by the search committee", sources said, adding that Aziz Hazmi was a Research fellow in Kashmir University and his pay grade was equivalent to a Culture officer in the Academy. Besides 37 officers are senior to Aziz Hazmi, in the Academy, sources said.
Moreover, Bashir Arif, retired director of Radio Kashmir Srinagar has experience of broadcasting instead of culture, art and languages, while Dr. Farooq Fayaz is also retired Professor of History from Kashmir University.
The other is Ayash Arif, who is simply a dramatist and the fifth officer was OP Vidhyarthi, an IFS officer. All these officers have no specialization in Art, Culture and Languages, while there were numerous officers in Academy who had specialization in subjects, along with educational qualification and have contributed a lot for enriching the Academy, but have been ignored due to some unknown reasons. |
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