Governor Reveals Scam in J&K Bank Recruitment

The Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Satya Pal Malik, has exposed a scam during the People’s Democratic Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government. He said that the selection list of 528 candidates in Jammu and Kashmir Bank (J&K) was changed to appoint political workers of the parties.

In an interview with the TV news channel Times Now, the Governor said that about 40 young applicants had approached him saying they had cleared all examinations and figured in the selection list of the J&K bank but were replaced by relatives and workers of these political parties.

He further said that he had called the chairman of the bank who informed him that not only 40 but all the 582 youths recruited by the bank had been replaced with the political appointees recommended by leaders from different constituencies.

When questioned about the “Group Insurance Policy with Reliance General Insurance”, the Governor made an indirect reference about his advisors and bureaucrats who had misled him into signing the papers related to the policy.

On October 28,  J&K Bank’s Chairman and CEO Parvez Ahmad in a statement issued on the bank’s Twitter handle said that “Recruitment process (was) transparent, governor quoted out of context.”

The statement further said, “J&K Bank has maintained absolute transparency and fairness in the recruitment process. There is no scope of any tinkering in the merit list prepared by the reputed national level professional recruitment agency, the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS). The bank is open to public scrutiny on this.”

He said, “582 candidates have been appointed by clearing the waiting list from the previous recruitment process on account of vacancies arisen due to branch expansion in unbanked areas of J&K state.” He stated that the waiting list has been cleared as per the directions of the Governor as the candidates were on the verge of being overage.

Plan to deviate Attention from Reliance Scam?

While speaking with NewsClick, a bank official, on condition of anonymity, said, “It is an attempt to deviate attention from the Reliance Insurance scam. The Governor is not an officer who can be mislead by few people, he is, after all, here to govern the whole of J&K.”

However, candidates who had appeared in the PCS exams say that the exams were shady from beginning. One of the candidates told NewsClick, “After the notification was issued, exams were supposed to be conducted within 30 to 40 days of the notification. But due to the internal conflict between two political parties, exams were conducted after 6 months.”

He further said that they there was no information about the number of available posts in the notification. Even the results were declared after a long gap. Results were not transparent either. The result only mentioned the name of the person who qualified and who disqualified, no grade points were mentioned.

“Many people filed RTIs to get their papers and check the score but the Bank refused saying they don’t come under the purview of RTI,” he added.