Public Service Commission finally goes defunct, Jandial last man standing Syed Junaid Hashmi JAMMU, Oct 6: With retired IAS officer Kulbhushan Jandial being the last man in office, Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) is virtually now a defunct institution. Chairman of the Commission Shiban Lal Bhat, who retired as Financial Commissioner (FC) Finance and was later appointed to head PSC completed his term on September 11 this year. Known for keeping a low profile and remaining away from controversies, Bhat left the commission the day his term ended. Sources said that Bhat notified the government about the vacancies and also told them about his inability to continue further. With Bhat demitting the office, PSC is left with lone member Kulbhushan Jandial, whose term is also expiring on November 16, 2014 i.e. exactly a month and 10 days from today. If the pace at which state government has been moving vis-à-vis appointment of members and other important functionaries in various autonomous, government-funded and semi-government institutions is taken into account, PSC story is unlikely to be any different. The institution has already become defunct with lone member Jandial managing its affairs. State government has found it extremely difficult to appoint members to this commission during the last 5 years. They heeded to the advice of ex-Chairman S.L.Bhat and preferred not to appoint new members to the commission despite retirement of the existing members one after the other. Not only advice of Bhat but politicisation of the appointment of PSC members by the two coalition partners, NC and Congress aggravated the situation further. The two coalition partners had their own choices of IAS officers and academicians for being appointed to prestigious Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) and the two are yet to arrive at a consensus, said the sources. They said that NC had prepared a list of its favourites while Congress had come up with its own menu. The politicisation of the appointment of the members as well as Chairman to the PSC led to prolonged until floods hit the state on September 7 and the meeting of the crucial coordination committee of the two coalition partners where the names of members were to be discussed could not take place. They further said that if the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah goes ahead on his own and appoints a Chairman or other members to the commission without taking state congress leadership into confidence, it is going to snowball into a major controversy, leading to further deepening of fissures between the two partners. If the sources are to be believed, the two coalition partners made appointment of members to the PSC a prestige issue with both wanting to get as many of their loyalists as they can into the commission. They added that this is causing the entire damage and has resulted in PSC being left with single member Kulbhushan Jandial. A Deputy Secretary rank KAS officer Pervaiz Ahmed Raina is now Secretary as well as Controller Examination (COE) in PSC. Even the appointment of Secretary in the PSC has been tough affair for NC-Congress coalition government. They have allowed a junior KAS officer to take over all important examinations and other affairs of the high profile PSC. Pertinently, under section 129 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, the chairman and the members of the PSC are appointed by the Governor for a period of five years or till the member attains the age of 65 years. Vide SRO 479 of 1996; dated December 31, 1996, the sanctioned strength of the PSC was increased by two members. Two more posts were added to this strength vide SRO 52 of 2007 dated February 28, 2007. The present strength of commission is 9 and government now has to appoint 8 members to the commission including Chairman.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 05:26:48 +0000
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