The Government of Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir headed by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha will undertake discrete verification of the character and antecedents of its employees in the wake of the reports of direct or indirect involvement of some of the government employees in terrorist activities.
In the order issued on Thursday by the General Administration Department under the signature of Manoj Kumar Dwivedi (commissioner/ secretary of the government) the administration has once again asserted that it is mandatorily required for employees to maintain absolute integrity, honesty and allegiance to the Union of India and its Constitution and do nothing which is unbecoming of a Government servant.
The government order further notes that employees are bound by the J&K Government Employees Conduct Rules, 1971.
Govt of J&K issues order regarding verification of Character and Antecedents of Govt employees.
— ANI (@ANI) September 16, 2021
“In the event, such employee(s) (defaulters) are due for promotion (Functional/Non-functional), their cases shall be put on hold immediately,” reads the order. pic.twitter.com/0B9AAtpuuV
In case if an employee fails in the integrity verification their promotion (Functional/Non-functional) will be put on hold immediately. Further, such cases will be submitted to the UT Level Screening Committee constituted for the purpose under the rules of Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Verification of Character & Antecedents) Instructions, 1997 for its decision.
On confirmation of the adverse report by the UT Level Screening Committee, further action will be initiated against such adversely reported employees including termination from government services. However, such orders of the screening committee can be reviewed by the Review Committee or at the request of the aggrieved employee concerned.
The administration has categorically defined parameters of discrete verification under seven broad categories that will be undertaken from time to time to spot such rogue employees working against the interest of the nation.
This includes involvement in any act of sabotage, espionage, treason, terrorism, subversion, sedition, secession, facilitating foreign interference, incitement to violence or any other unconstitutional act. Employees must not keep any association or sympathy with persons who are attempting to commit any of the above acts or involved in aiding or abetting or advocating the above acts.
The discrete verification will also look into the involvement of an individual’s immediate family, persons sharing residential space with the employee to whom he or she may be bound by affection, influence or obligation or involved in any of the acts having the potential of subjecting the individual to duress thereby posing a grave security risk.
“Failure to report relatives, persons sharing residential space or associates who are connected with any foreign government, associations, foreign nationals known to be directly or indirectly hostile to India’s national and security interests and failure to report unauthorized association with a suspected or known collaborator or employee of a foreign intelligence service,” are among other parameters of discrete verification of character and antecedents of employees.
The failure of the employees to inform about unauthorized association with a suspected or known collaborator or employee of a foreign intelligence service will be verified and pointed out during the verification.
Service rules of employees were amended in 2020
In July 2020, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir had introduced amendments in the service rules of employees to spot and quick dismissal of employees who are a threat to the security of the state. A mechanism was devised for the termination of anti-national employees without facing judicial scrutiny if the evidence is concrete.
After the new rule was introduced, one Idrees Jan, a teacher at Government Middle School, Kralpora in Kupwara was dismissed for his anti-national activities.
Earlier the government had dismissed 11 more employees, including sons of designated global terrorist Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, for working for various terror groups. Prior to this, as many as seven government staff including DSP Devendra Singh were dismissed from the service. The National Investigation Agency is also investigating a case of narco-terrorism where employees of a cooperative bank were arrested for terror funding.
