Complaint filed with CS as Principal Secy HED verbally abuses Dir RUSA

JAMMU: Yet another incident of alleged misbehavior within state bureaucracy has come to fore as Shafiq Ahmed Chek, Director, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), J&K is reported to have been verbally abused by the Principal Secretary to the Government, Higher Education Department, Dr Asgar Hassan Samoon.
The KAS Officers Association has taken a strong cognisance of the incident which took early this week and has even appraised Chief Secretary B B Vyas about it three days ago.
A delegation of the association led by its president Tasaduq Hussain Mir had met CS Vyas on Wednesday and brought to his notice the incident, asserting that increasing prevalence of such unfortunate incidents of misbehaviour with officers have a demotivating effect on them, besides leading to an erosion of professional etiquettes.
Adding to the credibility of the reports of verbal abuse by Dr Samoon, the sources in the state bureaucracy told The News Now that verbal abuses are symptomatic of Samoon’s idioms and conversations.
“Some officers dismiss these abuses as symptomatic of his (Samoon) idiom while some officers take offence to it,” they said.
One of the KAS officers quoted Chek as saying that the verbal abuse by Samoon has been going on for a very long while.
On one particular day last week, Samoon reportedly said something highly objectionable upon which Chek’s patience petered out, he said.

“It was then that he thought of reporting the matter to the Chief Secretary,” he added.

Chek is reported to have told the Chief Secretary that ‘it is not possible to work under this officer’.

It may be mentioned here that Chief Secretary, when told by KAS Officers Association about the matter on Wednesday, had described the incident as an unfortunate one and assured the delegation that the matter will be seriously looked into.

“In order to address the issue, the Chief secretary assured the delegation that a specific advisory will be issued to the Government Officers for regulating their behaviour and conduct in the professional lives in keeping with the provisions of J&K Civil Service Conduct Rules,” an official statement from KAS officers Association had said.

Meanwhile, Jammu & Kashmir Private Schools Association (PSAJK) on Friday condemned the behaviour of a particular group of administrative officers for resorting to ‘cheap’ media stunt by levelling certain allegations against Samoon, principal secretary higher education.
In a statement, the Association said that the state administration is full of officers who have a habit of making a mountain out of the molehill.

“It is a known fact that Dr Asgar Samoon is one of the most competent officers in the state administration,” said G N Var president PSAJK.

“But unfortunately in Kashmir whenever anybody tries to do good work he or she is hounded with strange accusations and hurdles created in his or her path.”

“Till date, no common man has alleged of misbehaviour by Dr Samoon and why only an officer has done it. The reason is simple that Dr Samoon wanted works to be done for the betterment of education,” said Var.

The Association also condemned the stand taken by KAS officers association for making it a point of prestige. It said that the administration has its checks and balances for the officers in case they have a complaint and this looks a fishy campaign against a dedicated officer like Dr Samoon.

“The particular officer who has accused Dr Samoon should first introspect his own department. Crores have lapsed in his department and its mission of quality and betterment of education is seen nowhere on the horizon,” said the Association.

The Association said that government should formulate criteria to determine the merit of an officer on some standard points and same should be published every year so that people come to know their worth.