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| PM stumps Omar govt, Arun Kumar goes to ASSOCHAM | | J&K's clearance denial overruled | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Jan 1: After being on all kinds of leave, including half-pay leave, for over 20 months from the time he was dumped as Chairman Special Tribunal in January 2010 and thereafter being refused elevation, 1979 batch IAS officer of J&K cadre Dr. Arun Kumar has finally managed to escape J&K by joining ASSOCHAM (the Associated Chambers of Industry and Commerce) as its senior Advisor- Policy.
The appointment, it is learnt, was not only cleared by the central Department of Personnel but also by the Cabinet Secretary and the Prime Minister personally, overruling the denial of clearances from the state government. Sources said that Dr. Kumar is likely to help accelerate absorption of suitable J&K youth in the concerns run by over 3 lakh members of ASSOCHAM, which as the oldest Industry Association in the country has been requested by GOI to help mitigate this problem.
ASSOCHAM is reputed to have over 60 expert committees covering sectors as Information Technology, Biotechnology, Telecom, Banking and Finance, Tourism, Civil Aviation, Infrastructure, Energy, Power, Education, Real Estate and so on. It's members regularly interact with the GOI in international fora on issues such as intellectual property rights, environmental safeguards, anti-dumping and quality standards with the result that ASSOCHAM is today authorized by the government of India to issue certificates of origin, certify commercial invoices and recommend business visas.
In its request to spare Dr. Kumar for this assignment, sources said that Secretary-General ASSOCHAM had also brought to the attention of the authorities the contribution Arun had made when he had last spent 2 years with ASSOCHAM some 10 years back as its Deputy Secretary-General from 2000-2002. At that time, sources said that Kumar had coordinated all activities of ASSOCHAM's Tourism, Aviation, IT, Education, Energy Conservation, and Transport Committees. They added that highlight of his earlier stint was the organization of the historic meeting with Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines with 10 airline heads of the country including Indian Airlines and Jet Airways.
They added that Dr. Kumar was also instrumental in persuading his tourism committee members to shift their usual trade-unionist stance that reinforced the anti-poor, luxury-oriented, and non-essential image of the tourism sector, to its huge employment generating potential, which was appreciated by the-then Union Secretary Tourism.
In addition, ASSOCHAM sources said that Dr. Kumar organized a number of interactions with GOI on adult education and skill enhancement and represented ASSOCHAM on a number of government committees such as the one in the Planning commission for employment opportunities for J&K youth, in UPSC for revising the recruitment methodology for IAS, and so on.
He also, on behalf of ASSOCHAM, facilitated the investment seeking official visit of the Haryana government, headed by its Chief Minister, to South Korea. In this background, sources said that Chief Minister Omar Abdullah government sat on ASSOCHAM's request for over three months before conveying "No Objection" to the union government. And after that, when the Prime Minister's approval was conveyed to the Chief Secretary on December 14, 2011, sources said that out of sheer professional issues, state government again took over 15 days to relieve Dr. Arun Kumar.
Sources asserted that temptation to teach Arun a "lesson" for his alleged role in "creating" the Amarnath crisis of 2008, we guess, was stronger than any perceived benefit to the state that his joining ASSOCHAM could bring forth! And this is the reason, sources said that state government is still refusing Kumar couple the Chief Secretary's grade that is due to them since Jan. 2009 i.e. for three years, notwithstanding the fact that the union government in its Vigilance Cell in DOPT has already settled the issue by holding that the charges against this couple are an example of political witch-hunting and devoid of any merit. |
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