J&K sacks six more 'anti-national' government employees

Jammu and Kashmir government headed by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Wednesday terminated service of six more government employees without holding any enquiry for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities.

They include two constables of J&K police, two teachers, a senior officer of the forest department, and an employee of Roads and Buildings department.

The dismissals were greenlit by a committee headed by Jammu and Kashmir’s chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta. The cases are referred to the committee by a ‘Special Task Force’ (STF) chaired by J&K’s intelligence chief which was set up in April this year.

These employees were dismissed under Article 311 of the Constitution under which no inquiry is held and dismissed employees can only approach a high court for relief.

In April, the J&K government had announced the formation of a STF to bring under the scanner government employees allegedly involved in ‘anti-national’ activity. The STF has been empowered to compile records of such employees and refer them to the committee constituted on July 30 last year.

So far on the recommendations of the committee, two dozen government employees, including two sons of Pakistan-based Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahudin and tainted deputy superintendent of J&K police, Davinder Singh, who was chargesheeted by the NIA for providing support to the Hizbul, have been dismissed from the service.

A senior officer in J&K General Administration Department (GAD) said the termination of employees is an “ongoing process.”

For future appointments, the J&K government has already made the rules stricter wherein anybody joining the service will be subjected to CID verification which will unravel whether the fresh recruits have links in anti-national and anti-social activities.

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