The government of Jammu and Kashmir has come under sharp criticism from two former Chief Ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti after a senior IAS officer accused the UT administration of "harassment, intimidation, and threat" due to prejudice related to his "scheduled caste" status.
In a letter, dated August 17, 2023, addressed to the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, Government of India, the IAS officer, Ashok Parmar, who also serves as the principal secretary, stated that he has "apprehensions" that these senior IAS officers might go to any extent to "damage my reputation and career by taking arbitrary action against me to implicate me in false cases with the help of anonymous/pseudonymous complaints." He alleges these officials are involved in irregularities and acts of omission and commission committed.
Parmar, a 1992 Gujarat cadre officer, has been transferred five times in the last year. He writes that he has been targeted after he exposed “massive irregularities in the Jal Shakti department.” In the letter, while naming senior officials, Parmar said he had informed the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Jal Shakti Department, and the Prime Minister's Office about “false, concocted, misleading, and factually incorrect information regarding the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission in the UT of J&K.”
The Jal Jeevan Mission was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on August 15, 2019, with the aim of providing tap water connections to every rural household by 2024. In the UT of J&K, the Jal Jeevan Mission was launched to provide each household with piped water connections that can ensure an adequate and prescribed quantity of drinking water on a regular, long-term, and sustainable basis. The Centra set a target of 2024 for the completion of this mission. However, Jammu & Kashmir set an ambitious goal of achieving coverage for all 18.35 lakh rural households with Functional Household Tap Connections (FHTCS) by December 2022, two years ahead of the national timeline. Parmar says this was done without assessing the bottlenecks posed by hostile terrain, extreme climatic conditions, the poor capacity of the engineering staff of the Jal Shakti Department, and the weak capacity and financial conditions of contractors in the UT of J&K.
Parmar says once he pointed out all of this, he was transferred to the AIR and Training Department within four months, despite his outstanding performance in the Jal Shakti Department. He says as Principal Secretary to the Government, ARI & Training Department, when he began field inspections of various departments as per instructions, his superiors were unhappy with the inspection reports' recommendations, which highlighted significant administrative and financial irregularities in departments such as Jal Shakti, Rural Development, Agriculture, and Public Works.
"I had requested the Union Home Secretary to address the inappropriate and premature transfers and postings of IAS officers in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir. Many IAS/JKAS/IRS officers are given charge of two to three departments without considering their seniority and experience, and many of them are allowed to hold posts for more than the prescribed three-year tenure," he mentioned.
In the letter, he mentioned that to harass, humiliate, intimidate, and threaten him, he was once again transferred from the ARI and Training Department and appointed as Principal Secretary to the Government, Skill Development Department, on July 18, 2023.
Omar Abdullah stated that the allegations are serious enough to warrant an impartial investigation, though it's unlikely to happen. “The allegations are serious enough to warrant an impartial investigation but we know that will never happen. Sadly the news media has completely ignored this story. They are being kept too busy chasing Ms World & other fluff stories. The lure of advertising rupees & the fear of summons to police stations have effectively silenced what was once a vibrant free(ish?) press in J&K," he posted on Twitter.
Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said, “Allegations about corruption at the highest level in J&K have finally found feet to stand upon. When an IAS officer confirms the rot in the system at the very top it indicates the grave risks he’s taken by exposing them. Instead of punishing culprits responsible for bungling of thousands of 3000 crores in the Jal Jeevan scheme, an upright officer is made to suffer.”
