Continuing with its drive against corruption, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has ordered a probe into the alleged irregularities in the recruitment of faculty members for Jammu and Kashmir Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (IMPARD). A five-member committee headed by the additional chief secretary of J&K’s home department has been set up to probe the irregularities in hiring faculty members for IMPARD “in violation of rules”. The irregularities are believed to predate the tenure of the existing director general of the institute due to which the administration has asked the probe committee to find out details about the governing council meetings of the institute. The probe committee is likely to dig into the details of the meetings held over the last five years, whether the institute held the governing council meetings as per schedule and why the irregularities involved in the recruitment were not earlier flagged to the higher administration. This is the fifth recruitment scam that has been unearthed by the administration in the last one year. Earlier, some aspirants had alleged that there were irregularities in the recruitment of sub-inspectors by the Service Selection Board. After a preliminary probe found that the accusations were true, a full fledged probe was ordered which was later taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The agency dug deeper into the muck and found that some people had managed to obtain question papers from the printing agency that was hired for the printing process. The paper was then sold to some aspirants, most of whom were based in Jammu region for Rs 20-25 lakh. Several people including a commandant of a central paramilitary agency were found involved in the scam and many people were arrested. The agency acted swiftly and a chargesheet has been filed in the case. Similarly, there were accusations of irregularities in the recruitment of accounts assistants by the finance department, junior engineers and firemen. In all these cases, the administration wasted no time in putting any speculations to rest and ordered a time bound probe. This shows that the administration is seriously tackling the problem of corruption in Jammu and Kashmir. Corruption breeds inefficiency and it erodes the faith of people in the system. This is one of the reasons why people in Jammu and Kashmir, and especially the Valley, have been disillusioned by the state of affairs. By acting swiftly, the admin has sent out a loud and clear message that there will be zero tolerance for corruption.