Ex-IAS Recalls When J&K had Constable DGP & PA Chief Secy
A panel discussion on issues concerning CAF at IIC in New Delhi (Image credit The Raisina Hills)
PA, Constable Held Posts of Chief Secy, DGP in J&K: Ex-IAS
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, February 25: Reflecting on the role of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), former IAS official Arun Kumar recalled that a constable in 1980s became the chief of the state police in Jammu and Kashmir. He also said that a personal assistant of a minister became the Chief Secretary in J&K.
Arun Kumar, who is credited to have set up facilities for the Vaishno Devi Temple and Amarnath pilgrims, said that the Centre “looked away even while there were consternations in the IAS and IPS officials in Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who had to work under ex-PA and ex-constable”.
Kumar was a 1979 batch IAS officer. The former official recalled ways he reached out to the CAG to “expose irregularities” in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Sheikh Abdullah was the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. His former personal assistant was the Chief Secretary. A former constable was the Director General of Police. The IAS and IPS officials were angry, but Delhi ignored their concerns,” said Kumar.
The former official was speaking at a panel discussion on launch of the book ‘CAG Ensuring Accountability Amidst Controversies: An Inside View’ authored by former auditor P. Sesh Kumar. Several former bureaucrats and auditors dwelt upon the affairs of CAG in the last one decade.
“At last, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) gave an idea to deal with the prevailing situations in Jammu and Kashmir. The DoPT asked, why don’t you go to the auditor,” recalled Kumar. Sheikh Abdullah was J&K Chief Minister until 1982, the year he passed away.
“There were at least 50 IAS officials working in Jammu and Kashmir at that time under the Chief Secretary who was a former PA. The DoPT gave possible remedial roadmap to expose the financial irregularities with the help of the CAG,” said Kumar, adding that “the PMO was directly dealing with affairs of J&K at that time”.
He stated that the financial irregularities were such that transmission and distribution of electricity in Srinagar was 70 per cent. “Srinagar is a flat-belly region in J&K with no hills and snows. The electricity revenue losses were simply theft and dacoity,” said Kumar.
The big opportunity for the officials came when J&K government embarked on “regularization of encroached land with aim to pay off electricity losses under the Roshini scheme”. “For paltry amounts, the government decided to regularize encroached public land. Politicians themselves had grabbed the public land. We went to the CAG to audit the whole scheme,” said Kumar.
The CAG report subsequently became the basis for the High Court scrapping the “land grab” Roshini scheme, said the former bureaucrat.
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