JAMMU: Alleging politicisation of bureaucracy, the activists of Panthers Party on Sunday held a demonstration in Gandhi Nagar here and sought punitive action against the defaulting civil servants under relevant services laws and norms. The agitated workers led by Provincial President JKNPP Rajesh Padgotra, Senior Vice President Young Panthers, Pushpinder Singh Manhas and Sham Lal Gorkha, Vice President Panthers Trade Union assembled in the morning near Party Headquarters and held a protest amidst slogans against DC Udhampur and Directors of Horticulture, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Departments besides Industries Department. Padgotra said that BJP leaders of Jammu including its ministers and legislators were not only abusing the government machinery and public exchequer but were using the civil servants and other government employees for promotion of their political interests.
He said that there were several reports of government employees having been threatened by certain BJP MLAs to accommodate their vested political and personal agendas, while several others had been offered lucrative assignments and postings in lieu of their propagating in favour of such leaders. He said that there were several government officials who had pledged their loyalty to such BJP leaders for unwholesome favours and prized postings. “Panthers Party had identified such officers and had written to the concerned authorities for holding appropriate action against them which however was elusive till date,” he asserted. Making a particular mention of Deputy Commissioner Udhampur, Neeraj Kumar, the JKNPP leader asked that said officer had totally surrendered before the BJP and was openly projecting and promoting its leadership in the district in utter violation of service laws and standing orders of the government. He however regretted that the Deputy Commissioner Udhampur alongwith district officers joined all public meetings of BJP MLAs with the latter going hammer and tongs against the opposition parties in such political functions.
He said the Deputy Commissioner was further trying to cover the horticulture and agriculture scams in Udhampur wherein one of the BJP MLAs was also involved in the withdrawal of incentives and subsidies meant for poor in the name of his father.
Pushpinder further flayed the large scale irregularities in the recent transfers and postings in Animal Husbandry Department besides complaints of political and money power having influenced such posting.
He said large scale modifications of transfers in Animal Husbandry were made by concerned authorities, several employees transferred alongwith posts and several others posted against non-existent posts. Prominent among those who led the protest included Jagdev Singh, Shankar Chib, Naresh Chib, Adv. Vilakshan Singh, Nirmal Kishore, Neeraj Gupta, Balram Kundal, Rajesh Gondhi, Balbir alias Happy, Satvir Singh and Rishi Badyal.