Lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha, appointed by the BJP-led Centre, faced embarrassment on Tuesday after the BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir chief, Ravinder Raina, sided with protesting job aspirants to question the administration’s decision to give the contract for recruitments to a previously blacklisted company.
Hundreds of aspirants are up in arms against the decision and have staged multiple protests in both Jammu and Kashmir for the past few days.
The LG’s administration, which has accused all previous elected governments of being corrupt, is facing a credibility crisis after several lists issued by its main recruitment arm, the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board, were cancelled over allegations of fraud.
Following protests, the government hired Mumbai-based firm Aptech to conduct the recruitments, only to land in more trouble.
The company had been blacklisted by several state governments over allegations of fraud, but the Jammu and Kashmir government has defended its decision.
“It is worrisome that a clause was changed (to allow a blacklisted or previously blacklisted company to bid for the contract). If the clause has been changed, it is (indeed) a very serious concern,” Raina told the protesting aspirants.
“I think there is a need to see and study the evidence (collected by job aspirants against the company). The admit cards (for the recruitment exams) have been issued but their apprehensions have to be addressed. If any kid goes to the examination centre, he should have faith that hard work will not go waste,” the BJP leader added.
Raina on Tuesday faced an awkward situation when he reached a power department office in Jammu to personally pay his electricity bill.
The department had cut power supply to his home and those of several other politicians for non-payment of bills for a long time.
The Jammu and Kashmir BJP president claimed he was served an “inflated bill” because of some “technical error” but the mistake had been corrected.
While he got reprieve on this front, he found scores of job aspirants awaiting him outside, seeking clarification on the party’s stand on the recruitment controversy.
Raina initially sought a closed-door interaction with the aspirants but they refused to budge and instead asked him to clarify everything in front of the media.
The aspirants provided documents to him which they claimed was evidence that the government was favouring a blacklisted company. Raina faced tough questions, with one job seeker asking him to explain what the government’s “relation” with the company was.
Another asked why Raina had deleted a tweet in which he had reportedly favoured a CBI inquiry into the issue.
“You had asked for a CBI investigation against Aptech but within half an hour, you deleted the tweet. Under whose pressure did you do it? Whose call did you receive?” an aspirant asked.
Raina acknowledged he had favoured an investigation but did not clarify why he deleted the tweet.
“You have some apprehension that the company should not repeat the fraud as it will be an injustice with educated and hard-working candidates. It (apprehension) is natural,” he said.
The protests by the job aspirants are showing no sign of abating despite the promise of a clean recruitment process.
The government had detained hundreds of protesters but they were all released.
Lieutenant governor Sinha on Monday accused political leaders who headed previous governments — from the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Party — of giving jobs to terrorists and their relatives after they joined protests against the administration’s alleged fraud.
