SRINAGAR — Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti on Thursday alleged that the National Conference (NC) government has made 25,000 “backdoor appointments” in the union territory.
“There are about 25,000 backdoor entries in 25 months (of their government). I have orders, but I do not want to disclose their identities for their protection. Also, no other candidates were interviewed,” Mufti told reporters here.
She said these were not ordinary posts, but vacancies in the government departments across Jammu and Kashmir, which the government “gave to their ministers, MLAs, alliance partners. I think the BJP also has a share, that is why they are silent and are not raising any hue and cry over it”.
Mehbooba, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said her party received complaints about these appointments, alleging that the government took two to three lakh rupees from the candidates.
“Around 200 private outsourcing agencies were used for this. For some time, a website remained open where candidates were asked to fill out forms. Once they submitted the form, the site would close,” she claimed.
The PDP president said the government provided its list to the outsourcing agencies, which processed their recruitment.
“There is one Ramzan sahib, one Ayush sahib. I do not want to disclose their designations; there are other people in several departments, whether it is their PROs or secretaries, who used to take the list from the MLAs, which was then given to the outsourcing agencies,” she said.
Mehbooba alleged that such appointments were made without any advertisements.
She demanded an immediate stop to “backdoor appointments”.
“Such backdoor appointments should be stopped, and there should be action if (chief minister) Omar (Abdullah) is not himself patronising it,” she said.
Regarding the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the valley, the PDP president said certain “lobbies” among the Pandits were trying to “weaponise” their pain to run their own agenda.
“It is good that Kashmiri Pandits are coming here now. But there are some lobbies among the Kashmiri Pandits, some people who, to run their own agenda, want to weaponise their pain. The Kashmiri Pandits should isolate them.
“Also, they should stop looking into the past and look towards the future. About 99 per cent of those killed in J-K are Muslims. Only one per cent were our Pandit brothers, whose population is very small,” she said. — (PTI)