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| Chief Engineer refuses to take political shit | | Abused by CAPD Minister, tenders resignation | | Bashir Assad
SRINAGAR, Aug 7: Chief Engineer, PHE Kashmir Muzaffar Ahmad Lankar today resigned from his post after he was allegedly abused by Minister for CAPD, Choudhary Ramzan during a review meeting in Srinagar.
The top engineer known for his honesty and integrity was allegedly forced by the CAPD Minister to resign from his post after he was abused by the latter during a review meeting held in the office chamber of Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma today.
A top official present in the meeting told Early Times on the conditions of not to be named that the Minister misbehaved with the Chief Engineer and used unparliamentarily language after which Lanker too lost his cool and entered into a heated argument with the Minister.
The official said that the trouble started when CAPD Minister expressed his anger over some issue pertaining to a water supply scheme of Handwara and started shouted at Chief Engineer. He said the Chief Engineer then shouted back and both exchange heated arguments and were about to over power each other physically, however, the officers present in the meeting came in between and parted the quarrelling parties.
Sources said that the charged arguments started between Lankar and Ramzan in the presence many high level officers in the Civil Secretariat chamber of Congress Minister Sham Lal Sharma. Sources said that Lankar immediately after the meeting tendered his resignation to the Commissioners Secretary to PHE department through FAX.
In his communication to Commissioner-Secretary, Lankar said that he was abused by the Minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Chowdhary Mohammad Ramzan in a meeting today in presence of PHE Minister Sham Lal Sharma. "In view of grave provocative language used by CAPD Minister during the meeting I submit my resignation from the post of Chief Engineer and you are requested to make alternative arrangement for running the department," he said in the letter. The same sources said the Chief Engineer left the meeting and put in his papers in protest.
Meanwhile, the PHE department came in support of the top engineer saying that he had 'revolutionized' the water distribution system in the state. The departmental people said that Lanker was a dedicated, upright and honest engineer who put all his efforts to streamline the department. The Chief Engineer did not respond to repeated calls but an assistant who picked up his mobile phone confirmed the incident and the engineer's resignation.
Meanwhile, Chaudhary Ramzan has denied that he abused or physically assaulted the Chief Engineer PHE A M Lankar who resigned after leveling the allegations against him.
Ramzan said that there was an embezzlement of Rs 50 lakh in a water scheme in his constituency and he had raised the same issue in today meeting. "But he (Lankar) lost his cool and threw papers around and walked out of the meeting," he said.
Meanwhile, opposition PDP slammed the National Conference leader and Minister for CAPD, Chaudhary Ramzan, for 'abusing' an upright and honest State Government officer, M A Lankar, People’s Democratic Party (PDP), president, Mehbooba Mufti today said this is a new low in the working of Omar Abdullah-led Government in the state. In a statement, she said by resorting to such type of 'hooliganism' and 'highhandedness' time and again, the National Conference politicians are showcasing their 'real face'. She said the fact is that the NC leadership has always employed such type of 'inhuman acts' and it is not something new. "They (NC politicians) are frustrated and to hide their failures they now want to force the officers to resort to illegal methods to accommodate the ruling party agents," she said. Mehbooba said that the 'assault' on the officer becomes even more serious as the Minister incharge of his department, too, was reportedly present in the meeting and he could not protect his own head of the department. "Such an assault on any Government official or for that matter with any citizen is unacceptable but in the case of the modest and upright officer of prone integrity like MA Lanker , it becomes even more shocking," she said.
Mehbooba said the Ministers in the present Government have mostly come into adverse notice for their acts of omission and commission, scams and scandals and misconduct with the officials and ordinary people and today's incident has rightly sent shockwaves among the administration. Mehbooba said the PDP stands by Lanker and would do everything to uphold his dignity and self respect. |
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