New Delhi: Senior bureaucrat Ashok Kumar Parmar, an IAS officer of 1992 batch of Jammu & Kashmir cadre, has knocked on the doors of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) accusing Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta "inflicting harassment and humiliation upon him."
The copy of the complaint accessed by ETV Bharat was addressed to the NCSC, and dated Aug. 17, 2023 and the five-page petition highlighted “irregularities” in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in Jammu and Kashmir.
The bureaucrat from Dalit community submitted that Manoj Sinha, Lieutenant Governor of UT of J&K and Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary, J&K were "harassing, intimidating and threatening to me due to prejudice and bias against me for being Scheduled Caste IAS Officer".
He expressed his apprehensions that those involved in the acts of omission and commission in the implementation of the JJM might go to any extent to damage his reputation and career by taking any arbitrary actions against him to implicate him in false cases with the help of anonymous or pseudonymous complainants since he had pointed out many financial irregularities in the JJM", the complaint read. Parmar, who is currently posted as Chairman, Bureau of Public Enterprises.
"I had requested Union Home Secretary that there are inappropriate and premature transfers and postings of IAS officers in UT of Jammu and Kashmir and many IAS/JKAS/IRS officers are given the charge of two to three departments without considering their seniority and experience and many of them are allowed to continue to hold post/s more than 3 years of prescribed tenure."
"I had apprised him that I am 1992 batch IAS officer and my posting in ARI & Trainings Department is not commensurate with my seniority and vast experience of more than 30 years in Jammu and Kashmir and Government of India," Pamar said in the petition.
"If my services are not required in UT of Jammu and Kashmir, I may be transferred out from J&K and suitably posted in UT of Delhi so that I can spend my last tenure of my service with my family as my son is studying in New Delhi. I am due for retirement from the service in July, 2024," he appealed in his petition. Parmar was appointed as principal secretary, Jal Shakti Department in J&K, on 4 May 2022.
Parmar listed out his transfer posting as Principal Secretary of Skill Development Department as a harassment while claimed to have been thrown out of a meeting by the LG on one of the occasions in 2022. Parmar claimed that Sinha threw him out of the meeting on June 6, 2022, and the move was aimed at harassment and humiliation in full view of all Administrative Secretaries of UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
The petition also revealed that the bureaucrat had intimated the MHA, Ministry of Jal Shakti and Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about the alleged discrepancies in the JJM in the UT of J&K. Multiple attempts to reach Yatish Yadav, media advisor to the LG and Chief Secretary did not bear fruit. This copy will be updated when they respond to the allegations levelled in the petition filed before the NCSC.
