At least 57 government employees, including a college principal, professors, a Public Relations Officer of University of Kashmir, police personnel, and doctors, have been sacked in the past two years for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities.
Of the 57 sacked employees, 21 were from the education department. They included 13 school employees and eight university employees, including senior professors, lecturers, and principals, said the sources.
From the J&K Police, deputy superintendent of police-rank officers were among the 11 employees sacked, while three senior doctors were among the six fired from the health services.
Other sacked employees included three from the revenue services, two each from the public works, Jal Shakti, and rural development departments, and one each from the agriculture, power development, forest, prisons, industries and commerce, and social welfare departments, and the Industrial Training Institute, Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre, J&K Bank, and the state cooperative bank.
According to sources, the designated J&K committee that is responsible for scrutinising and recommending cases under Article 311 of the Constitution, which pertains to the “dismissal, removal or reduction in rank of persons employed in civil capacities under the Union or a state”, decided to sack the 57 employees.
Under the proviso (C) of Article 311(2), the government is empowered to terminate an employee without recourse to the normal procedure if it is satisfied that his/her retention in public service is prejudicial to the security of the state.
The dismissals were under Article 311(2)(c), which allows action without an inquiry. Sources said they are part of a larger crackdown by the J&K administration.
The 57 employees also include two sons of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.
One of them, Syed Ahmad Shakeel, was working at the Srinagar-based Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, and the other, Shahid Yousuf, was posted at the Jammu-based Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences & Technology.
Police claimed both were involved in “supporting militant activities”, “working as overground workers”, “arranging weapons for terrorists”, and “terror funding”. Both were earlier arrested by the NIA in a terror funding case.
According to the J&K officials, a committee was constituted in July 2020 under the aegis of the then-CID chief and now-Director General of J&K Police R.R. Swain for scrutinising inputs, records and cognisable material against government employees, and this led to the dismissals.
Sources said the government is now working on identifying employees engaged with drug cartels said.
“We are now identifying those who are assisting cartels in smuggling. It is the next course of action,” the source added.
The administration has also amended Article 226 (2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations (CSR) for a provision to retire at any time any government servant in the public interest after he/she has completed 22 years of service or attained 48 years of age.
The administration has also issued guidelines to its employees regarding use of social media and warned its work force against discussing and criticizing the government policies on social media platforms. The employees have been asked not to participate in any manner in any such discussion on government policies or criticism of government policies on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. or Instant Messaging applications like WhatsApp, Telegram etc, communities or microblogs.