J&K Bank emp assn faces heat after clean-up drive

The employees association of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank - All India Jammu & Kashmir Bank Officers Association - has been facing heat from its employees for siding with the sacked chairman Parvez Nengroo.

The employees of the bank, who are said have been worst sufferers of the bad human resource policies during Nengroo’s time, had tried to raise many issues with the association – only to be disregarded. DH has accessed many such emails, wherein employees had tried to flag issues with the association.

“Associations must work as watchdogs and not for their personal benefits,” one of the bank employees, Imtiyaz Punjabi wrote on his Facebook, drawing a huge response.

The bank insiders suggest that many of the association leaders were awarded plum postings by the sacked chairman Nengroo, in lieu of siding by him. One such case is Jameel Qadri, who is currently posted as branch head at Residency Road Branch – bank’s biggest branch in the country.

The branch has been historically headed by an officer of Scale 6, however, Qadri is just Scale 3. “He was handling the PR of the sacked chairman and in fact, he negotiated with J&K governor Satya Pal Malik, when the state administrative council (SAC) passed an order to bring J&K Bank under Right to Information (RTI) Act,” an employee of the bank wishing not to be named, said.

Many attribute this phenomenon to the lack of categorisation in the J&K Bank. Unlike, State Bank of India, which categorises its branches on the seniority level, JK Bank doesn’t do so.

Last year the SAC passed an order, bringing the bank under the ambit of RTI, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) guidelines and the state legislature. The move is aimed to insulate the bank from political influence used for backdoor appointments and sanctioning massive loans to big business houses.

However, the Association opposed the SAC order tooth and nail and warned the government against what they said interfering in the bank affairs.

“A few office bearers of the Association were the beneficiaries of the wrongdoings done by the Chairman and his coterie. They pressurised the government to top all decision which could have brought transparency and accountability in the bank,” sources said.

The Association president Tassaduq Madni, however, refuted the allegations. “Do you expect our Association would have gone public against our own organisation? Whenever we had to take up any issue concerning with the employees with the management, we did that,” he told DH.

Asked why a member of the Association has been given a plum posting much superior to his seniority, he defended the decision, saying: “Another scale 3 officer, who is not the member of our Association has been posted as cluster head. If a scale 3 officer has been posted as cluster head, why can’t a same seniority level officer head a branch.”

After reports of wide-spread irregularities under Nengroo, anti-corruption bureau (ACB) sleuths conducted raided the Corporate office of the Bank in Srinagar, where they seized some important records related to backdoor appointments and other irregularities in the premier financial institution of the state.