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| Controllers were 'eliminated' in BOPEE, PSC to favour candidates of top politicians, bureaucrats and brokers | | Have some shame on claiming credit for Mushtaq Peer's arrest | | Early Times Report
SRINAGAR, Dec 16: Then a strong contender for the post of Vice Chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology, Prof Mushtaq Peer was the first "high profile academic" chosen for the coveted position of the Chairman of Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) by the Omar Abdullah Government in 2009. The process of his appointment started immediately after Omar took over as Chief Minister on January 5, 2009. Peer's order of appointment followed on February 28.
Fairly knowledgeable about his traits and attainments, Prof Mohammad Shafi Dar lost no time to approach the then Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Khurshid Ahmad Ganai and a senior bureaucrat in General Administration Department with a request: "Kindly relieve me as Controller BOPEE and send me back to the Higher Education Department". Dar was transferred and appointed as Principal Government Degree College for Women Anantnag. Over four years later, his apprehensions came true. But for his wit, Prof Dar would have been Prof Peer's jail-mate today.
Insiders believe that Peer's appointment and Dar's exit as Controller were part of the new political establishment's scheme of things to have its own sons and daughters selected for various professional courses, particularly the most sought-after MBBS, MD and MS. His token of reciprocity came in the form of the 'selection' of the senior GAD bureaucrat's daughter for a post-graduation medical course.
At least four politicians, two of them in the State Cabinet, are known to have manipulated the BOPEE selections for their clients during Peer's tenure. Scores of others, including Ministers, MLAs, MLCs, MPs and other brands of the ruling coalition's politicians and bureaucrats, are also believed to have taken their share for their own relatives and clients.
Freelance brokers in fact are said to have got the lion's share as scores of their clientele were picked up through the backdoor against huge payments. These were occasionally exposed by media and some vociferous politicians but Peer's patrons in the Government provided him every possible shield. Some of the Ministers in a Cabinet meeting succeeded in diverting the selection of Patwaris for all the 22 districts through the BOPEE in 2012. Huge transactions occurred and everybody in the Government turned Nelson's eye towards the great massacre of merit.
Where's the proof?
"Give us the proof. Don't say things in the air. Everybody is innocent till proved guilty" was the refrain from the top corridors of the State Government. Even a series of comprehensive reports from the Special Branch of J&K Police were consigned to dustbins. Each and every Minister and bureaucrat chose to be deaf and dumb to the complaints of large scale irregularities and corrupt practices under Peer in the BOPEE. No action was taken over the demands that someone of proven integrity from academic background be appointed as Controller and an honest KAS officer as Secretary of the Board.
Since the void had been created under a design and Peer was made to function three-in-one (Chairman, Controller and Secretary), the vacancies of Controller and Secretary were never filled up as long as Peer remained at the helm of affairs in BOPEE. Farooq Ahmad Mir and Khurshid Ahmad were appointed Controller and Secretary only after Peer's exit from BOPEE and his re-employment as 'Consultant on fast track Class-4 recruitments".
The PSC model
The arrangement in the BOPEE was created much on the lines of the one already introduced in the State Public Service Commission (PSC). Peer's counterpart in the PSC was also the Omar Abdullah Government's foremost "proud discovery". With both, Peer and Bhat speaking high of "merit", "transparency" and "cleanliness", massacre of merit broke all records in the two institutions. It was during this period that, perhaps for the first time since 1957, the marks obtained by the candidates in the written tests were either calculated erroneously or attributed to "oversight" to eliminate the high-merit candidates and create room for the favoured ones. Two of such candidates were mercifully granted 100 marks each and picked up months after the KAS selection was notified. Nobody precisely knows the real number of the "victims of oversight".
How did that "oversight" become a regular feature of the selection at PSC? Former Chairman Mohammad Shafi Pandit had already got the Commission's Secretary Sham Lal removed for some reason. His charge was given to the Controller, Ghulam Hassan Mir. On a day when Bhat was basking in the sunshine on the PSC lawns in Srinagar, he called Mir and asked him to show him the results of a selection. Known for his integrity, Mir pleaded that it was not possible as he alone was the lawful custodian of the secret data file of his laptop. The Chairman argued that he wanted to see the community-wise ratio of the candidates selected. Mir's categorical refusal led to his unceremonious exit. Later, he died in oblivion.
Mir's prolonged illness and absence from work made the task easier for the men installed to select the blue eyed candidates and the brokers' clients. As Mir was repatriated and appointed as Additional Secretary in Social Welfare Department and M.A. Bukhari came in to join as Secretary, a scheme was designed to keep both the portfolios - Secretary and Controller- with one officer. The Rule was accordingly amended so as to enable the Secretary's access to the secrecy in his capacity as the Controller. This accomplished a mathematical equation and paved the way of intervention from the top corridors of power.
Ironically Bukhari, who himself functioned as Secretary and Controller at PSC for three years, was assigned to conduct an inquiry into the CET question paper leakage in June 2013. Interestingly, one of his glaring observations about Peer, as reported in the media last week, is that the poor Professor functioned simultaneously as Chairman, Controller and Secretary. "The two-in-one has given his report against the three-in-one", a wag told a top bureaucrat in the Civil Secretariat. |
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