Muzaffar Shah Ahmad, a cousin of former CM Omar Abdullah, says officers from the Kashmir Administrative Services are getting sidelined.
New Delhi: A senior leader of the Awami National Conference (ANC), a breakaway faction of the National Conference (NC), has demanded that non-local IAS and IPS officers be sent back from Jammu and Kashmir.
Muzaffar Shah Ahmad, the son of former chief minister G.M. Shah, said the presence of All-India Service officers was sidelining those from the Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS).
“What we are seeing is that a huge number of IAS officers are taking over the administration in the state, and this is happening at the cost of officers from the Kashmir cadre… Our officers are sitting on the fringes,” Ahmad, who is the senior vice-president of the ANC and a cousin of former chief minister Omar Abdullah, told ThePrint.
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Officers are divided over the ANC’s controversial position on the issue, with some of the top positions in Kashmir being occupied by non-local officers. But Shah believes such officers are not “as equipped to handle Kashmir’s problems as local officers”.
His father G.M. Shah became the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir after toppling Abdullah’s government in 1984. He later formed the ANC.
‘It is in J&K Constitution’
Ahmad argued that the practice of appointing non-local officers in the state began in 1958, and has changed the landscape of the state’s administration.
“We have our own Constitution, which says that important government jobs should be filled up by people from Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. But it is being completely neglected by the Centre,” he said.
“This not a region or religion issue but our Constitution says that only when officers cannot be found for specialised positions within the state, should they be brought in from the All-India Services.”
Asked which provision of the Constitution said so, Ahmad, who is all set to move the Supreme Court seeking restoration of the internal autonomy to J&K as “promised under the Delhi Agreement, 1952”, said, “I will get back to you with the exact provision but it is there.”
Opinion divided among officers
The situation for local officers became precarious with the PDP-BJP alliance coming to power in the state, an IAS officer said on condition of anonymity.
“Since then, the local bureaucracy has just been sidelined, even as non-local officers are occupying the top echelons of the bureaucracy,” the officer said.
However, another IPS officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “The government does not consider postings from the point of view… Until two years ago, the All-India Services were feeling alienated, so it keeps changing.”
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“For them, anyone who comes from UPSC is an outsider, but that’s not the case…There can be Kashmir-cadre officers from the All-India Services, who have spent 15-16 years in the state… How can you call them ‘outsiders’?” the officer asked.
First make this leader understand, They are surviving on tax money payed by other States.