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| Two months before retirement, Chakraborty refused re-entry in J&K | | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Aug 20: In the context of the re-employment of three retired bureaucrats in the Property Tax Board, ex-IAS officers have begun wondering over why the state not remember Prabodh G. Dhar Chakraborty, a J&K cadre IAS officer of the 1980 batch. Prabodh has handled almost every assignment in the urban development sector in Jammu and Kashmir from Jammu Municipality Administrator to Vice-Chairman of Jammu Development Authority (JDA) to Secretary Housing and Urban development department continuously for seven years from 1991 to 1998. If the sources are to be believed, no one in the cadre is more experienced than Chakraborty in this sector.
Even in union Government, he has served the Urban Development Ministry as Director for two years from 1998 to 2000. On his return from Government of India, records bear testimony to the fact that Chakraborty again served as Commissioner/Secretary Housing and Urban development for two years from 2003 to 2005, thus notching up an unparalleled twelve year stint in this sector. The retiring IAS officer is known widely among the bureaucratic circles for his pro-people steps and policies.
What to talk of make appointing him; IAS circles are agog over Government's refusal to even consider an experienced hand like Chakraborty for this newly constituted Property Tax Board. They have begun talking as to why he was forgotten when he is due to retire two months later on October 31, 2013.
It is true that Prabodh is currently serving the union Government as Advisor of the Inter-State Coordination Council. However, it is understood that Chakraborty has been sending feelers from top to bottom in Jammu and Kashmir power pantheon about his intentions of coming back to the State. If sources are believed, his consistent efforts were cold shouldered and he was pushed back. Sources allege that this is because Chakraborty, if allowed to come back, will have to be immediately given the rank of Financial Commissioner because his junior R.K. Jerath was given this rank in January 2012. At that time also, sources allege that manipulations ensured that not only Chakraborty but two other seniors of Jerath viz. Dr. Arun Kumar and Sonali Kumar were also passed over so that Jerath could get this rank without any complications before he retired on April 2012.
Why does promotion to FC rank scare some powers that be? It is definitely not money because the difference in pay scales (from Principal Secretary to Financial Commissioner) is just Rs. 1000. If the IAS officers are to be believed, it is because a Financial Commissioner (FC) rank officer will then have to be given a job worthy of this grade, which is what a select coterie of officers do not like in Jammu and Kashmir.
Instead, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's administration opted for present Commissioner Secretary Housing and Urban Development Department, Jeet Lal Gupta, who will take over as Chairman of the Board on his superannuation on August 31. Though it could not be confirmed but sources said that Congress managed to gets its pound of flesh in the appointment of Chairman as well as members to the property tax board.
The two members to the board include recently retired Law Secretary Farhat Tasneem and another retired bureaucrat, who served as Commissioner/Secretary Revenue Kachoo Isfandyar Khan. Sources further held out that the board has been constituted more on the regional lines and less on the grounds of merit and efficiency. Chakraborty was left waiting in New Delhi while a regionally stung state Government decided about giving the three regions i.e. Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh their due. |
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