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| 'He was warned that court cases against him would be reopened' | | Embarrassed, Iqbal Khanday to quit as CS | | Abdul Majid
Early Times Report
srinagar, Aug 25: J&K Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khanday's rising differences with the coalition Government-as was exclusively reported by Early Times on Tuesday-has prompted him to quit the top chair of bureaucracy.
Highly placed sources said Khanday is preparing his documents for voluntary retirement and the same would be submitted before the State Government in a day or two. He was otherwise scheduled to retire in November.
Sources said Khanday felt offended for being sidelined on some critical aspects of decision making since the PDP-BJP alliance came to power. His first face off with the coalition came to fore in May when his differences with Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh were visible and public.
It began when Shakti Pathak, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Deputy Chief Minister Singh, shot off a letter on behalf of Singh to the Chief Secretary for immediate revocation of the transfer order of Majid Khalil Ahmad Drabu, a KAS officer.
Drabu was transferred and posted as Special Secretary to Government, Public Works Department, from the post of Special Secretary to the Government, Health and Medical Education Department. Khanday had argued that the Special Secretary could not be transferred without the approval of the cabinet. Though the issue died down, confrontations did not.
Sources said this all took an ugly turn in July over appointment of members for the Public Service Commission when Khanday was allegedly asked to give clearance for the members without requisite scrutiny of their character and conduct.
Governor NN Vohra had sought relevant documents like 'non-involvement certificate' and Vigilance clearance of the persons to be appointed in the PSC, as a prerequisite.
Sources said Khanday was reluctant to do it as some of the members had a shady past. "But Khanday's resistance was snubbed by some of the ministers who warned him that cases already registered against him in various courts within and outside the state including Chandigarh would be reopened and he would be put to serious trial," the sources said.
They said thereafter even though Khanday did not take cudgels with the government, the Cabinet meeting held on August 21 proved disastrous. "Khanday was asked not to poke his nose into any of the transfers even for the sake of advice. This was a major embarrassment for the Chief Secretary and he tactfully skipped the meet," they said.
Sources said over the months Khanday had been optimistic that PDP leaders like MP Muzaffar Hussain Baigh and others would come to his defence. "But it didn't happen," they said.
But what went wrong between Khanday and the ruling coalition because he was often seen close to PDP and Muzaffar Baigh in one of his interviews last year admitted it. "This was even evident in the 2008 elections when Khanday's daughter Sehar Iqbal contested Assembly elections on PDP ticket," said an official adding "things have changed surprisingly."
Khanday, as per his colleagues, will be the first Chief Secretary to seek premature retirement over his differences with the government. "Though in 2008 BR Kundal too had gone for voluntary retirement, it was because the then Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad wanted him in the Congress," said Khanday's colleagues.
Call it fate or coincidence, in May when "Khanday Vs Nirmal Singh" news snowballed into a big controversy, Kundal had sought a ceasefire. Kundal had said there was always "a working relationship between the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Chief Secretary." "It is not a good thing to bring such matters in the public domain," he said.
An IAS officer of the 1978 batch, Khanday was appointed as Chief Secretary on February 18, 2013 during the National Conference-Congress ruling alliance headed by Omar Abdullah.
The second senior-most IAS officer in the state, B.R. Sharma, is likely to replace Khanday as the new Chief Secretary. |
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