Bureaucrats want more of their men as ‘Consultants’, OSDs
Ministers of ‘cleanest ever Govt’ retain relatives in personal sections
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
Informed sources in General Administration Department (GAD) revealed to Early Times that in addition to 85 retired officials, who had already managed re-employment after reaching superannuation or extension to services ahead of their retirement, over two dozen more officials were currently seeking a post-retirement rehabilitation.
Immediately after taking over in January 2009, NC-led coalition government had announced the policy of not granting any extension to services of the retiring employees. It had decided that in “very compelling circumstances”, extension of a maximum of one year could be granted to the incumbents holding reputation of exceptionally meritorious public servants. However, nearly a hundred blue-eyed boys of bureaucrats and politicians managed extension of one or even two years.
Sources said that one of the retired officials of the state Information Department was now close to completing two years of extension to his service. He was attached to Chief Minister’s Secretariat. Another retired official of the same department, attached to DGP Kuldeep Khoda, was completing his year-long extension in service.
Mohammad Yousuf Lone, who retired as Additional Secretary Law on January 31, 2010, and Bashir Ahmed Banday, who retired as Special Assistant to Minister of Agriculture, on the same day last year, are understood to be attempting yet another extension of one year each from January 31, 2011. Banday, who had once managed his entry into then Minister Mohammad Shafi Uri’s personal section, has been functioning as OSD with Minister of Industries after his retirement last year. After his retirement as a Deputy Director in Horticulture (Marketing & Planning) Department last year, Banday was inducted through backdoor as a “Special Secretary to Government” and is completing his one-year extension on January 31, 2011.
Even as most of the Ministers in Omar Abdullah’s government have been cautious about selection of staff in their personal sections, two of the young Ministers have got their close relatives posted. While as Minister of Social Welfare, Sakeena Itoo, has got her brother-in-law, Mohammad Ayub, (a Forest Range Officer) as her Personal Relations Officer, Minister of Animal Husbandry and Information Technology, Aga Syed Rohulla Mahdi, has got his 72-year-old maternal uncle, Akhtar Hasnain, posted against a senior position in his personal section. Akhtar had retired as a middle rung official in Department of Rural Development over a decade ago.
Sources revealed that about half-a-dozen retired and retiring officials are lobbying for becoming “Advisors”, “Consultants” or “OSDs”. They have been pleading their case with reference to the precedence of former Director of Doordarshan Kendra Srinagar, Farooq Nazki, who was appointed as “Consultant Media” by Omar Abdullah government nearly 15 years after his retirement in Government of India, besides, retired MD of J&K SRTC, Rafeeq Qadiri, who was appointed as “Consultant Handicrafts”, and retired Director of Archives and Museums, SKA Qadiri, who was appointed as “Consultant Culture” last year.
Sources said that a recently retired Forest official and an IGP, who is scheduled to reach superannuation later this year, have begun efforts to get themselves inducted as Members of State Public Service Commission.
Of the nearly 100 beneficiaries, only three officials---Sales Tax Commissioner Bashir Ahmed Khwaja besides PSC Members, Khizar Mohammad Wani and Kulbhushan Jandial---are understood to have been granted post-retirement extension on the basis of their performance and integrity. All others are known as favourites of certain influential bureaucrats and politicians. At least 20 of these backdoor entrants have broken all records of corruption and other unfair practices throughout their service career.
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