Govt forms panel to probe khadi board selections

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 19

The state government on Monday constituted a high-level committee to conduct an inquiry into the selections made by the Jammu and Kashmir Khadi Village and Industries Board (KVIB) against various posts recently.

This follows Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s order on February 25 wherein she had ordered a probe into the KVIB selections after the names of the kin of senior leaders of her party figured in the selection list.

As per the order issued by the General Administration Department, the Principal Secretary, Home Department, RK Goyal has been appointed as the Chairman while Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Pawan Kotwal and Secretary, School Education Department, Farooq Ahmad Shah have been appointed as committee members.

The terms of reference of the committee include inquiring into the complaints relating to the alleged unfair selections made by the board against various posts and determine as to whether proper procedure as laid down in the relevant rules was followed.

The committee will also inquire into the methodology in selecting the agencies for setting the questions, evaluation process, etc, and ascertain whether any deviation had been made in the selection process from advertising the posts to the release of selection lists. The committee will submit its final report within a month.

Yesterday, in Kulgam, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had reminded the Chief Minister of her order of an inquiry into the board selections saying, “Three weeks ago, the Chief Minister had ordered an inquiry into the backdoor appointments in the Khadi board, yet the inquiry order has not been issued”.

The board selections created an uproar in Jammu and Kashmir following the appointment of 37-year-old Aroot Madni, Mehbooba Mufti’s maternal cousin, with shortlisted candidates alleging that Madni was favoured to get into the board’s executive officers’ list.