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| Agri Minister allows 17 corrupt officials to retire without penalization | | Accountability withers! | | Syed Junaid Hashmi
JAMMU, Aug 6: Seventeen tainted officials of State Agriculture Production Department retired without being held accountable for the corruption cases pending against them.
Nineteen others who are still in service are attending their offices as a matter of routine. They have Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir backing them. It is his Ministry which is reluctant to take action against these 36 tainted officials of different departments, universities and corporations. He has been refusing to take action on the pretext that cases against these officials are at various stages of investigation.
The Minister has been further saying that once the investigations are complete, action would be initiated against the officials found guilty. Mere leveling of allegations does not mean that an officer should be punished is what Minister says whenever he is asked about reluctance of Agriculture Production Department to take action against the accused.
Official sources confirmed that Mir is not at all interested in cleansing the department of the corrupt. Even those who have cases of corruption lodged against them in State Vigilance Organization (SVO) are yet to face even departmental action. Instead of initiating departmental action against accused persons, the department sent the matter to the courts and the accused persons remained on the same posts.
The department provided these tainted officers No Objection Certificates (NOCs) and approved APRs providing ample scope for tampering and destroying evidence. Official documents indicate that 8 officials of Directorate of Horticulture, Kashmir were booked for alleged financial wrongdoings and embezzlement. They included ex-DHO Budgam Mohammed Amin Wadoo, ex-HDO Mohammed Maqbool Wani, Technicians Mohammed Yousuf Shah, Ghulam Rasool Malik and Ghulam Hassan Joo, ex-DHO Mohammed Asharaf Buch and ex-HDO Shabir Ahmed Mattoo, Mohammed Yousuf Shah and Ghulam Rasool Malik.
Of these 8 tainted officials, three have retired, 2 have been placed under suspension while departmental probe is going on against 3 other officials. Similarly, a case was registered in Crime Branch Jammu/Srinagar under FIR no. 03/2008 and 04/2010 respectively against ex-Agriculture Marketing Officer (AMO) Sopore M.A. Damoo and ex-AMO Baramulla Showkat Ahmed Khan for alleged misappropriation of funds.
An Enquiry Officer was appointed who has submitted his report which is being examined by Agriculture Minister's office from the last 4 years without any outcome. Another case against ex-Chinar Development Officer (CDO) M.D. Malla and Bashir Ahmed Dar, both retired now alongwith Floriculture Officer S.D. Lone is being probed by State Vigilance Organization (SVO) from the last 7 years.
In another case, SVO has named 15 persons as accused in its un-bifurcated Challan in the infamous financial embezzlements as well as recruitments scam, which allegedly took place in SKUAST during 2007-08 when Dr. Nagender Sharma was the Vice-Chancellor. On the directions of Agriculture Minister, SKUAST has allowed SVO to initiate persecution proceedings against middle and lower rung officials, who were members of different committees but denied the same for five top officials.
Officials whose sanction for prosecution has been denied include Dr. Anil Kumar Srivastava, the then DRI-cum-Dean PGS and presently, Director National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Dr. Arvind Kumar Bakshi who was then Director Research and presently, Vice-Chancellor (VC) of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Dr. Chander Shekhar Kalla, the then Prof. and head of Plant Pathology, presently, Associate Dean Faculty of Agriculture in SKUAST, Dr. Ramesh Kumar Sharma, the then Assoc. Dean FOA, Dr. Karnail Singh Risam, Director Extension Education and Dr. Rakesh Mohan Bhagat, DRI-cum-Dean PGS.
These are few of the instances where the Minister for Agriculture Ghulam Hassan Mir has allegedly assured that action is not taken against the accused tainted officials. He was repeatedly rung and asked role but Mir preferred the silence. |
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