As Nepotism Charges are Levelled Against Mufti Over Cousin's Appointment, CM Orders Probe

Jammu: Minutes after the Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti ordered a high level probe into the appointments of Jammu & Kashmir Khadi & Village Industries Board (KVIB), Aroot Madni, the son of Sartaj Madni and first cousin of the CM, declined to accept the offer of appointment as Executive Officer from the Board.

PDP General Secretary Rafi Ahmed Mir said: "Aroot Madni the son of Sartaj Madi has voluntarily declined to accept the appointment as Executive Officer Jammu & Kashmir Khadi & Village Industries Board.”

Chief Secretary B B Vayas has been named the head of a high level committee constituted for probing the KVIB appointments and the committee has been asked to come up with its fact finding reports in short time.

Madni, defending his selection, said he was "paying the price for belonging to a political family".

"I am convinced that I have been selected purely on the basis of merit and performance in the exams. There are many other candidates in the selection list who came from all kinds of family background. They too have found their place on the basis of their merit and performance. I don't want that my selection end its politicisation should affect their prospectus, as the selection process has been uniformly fair in every case. I therefore tender my resignation from the post of Executive Officer KVIB," said Madni.

Madni blamed it on the smear campaign and said his resigning from the post was a small price to pay to "uphold the fair name of my father".

The appointment of 37-year-old Syed Aroot Madni as an executive officer in the KVIB prompted dropped candidates to file an RTI seeking their marks in the written test and interview.

One candidate even wrote to to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his interview expressing fears of nepotism and malpractice.

A letter by state law secretary Abdul Majid Bhat, who was also controller of the KVIB recruitment exam, to IGP CID has surfaced which hints that the exam process may have been rigged.

CNN-News18 is in possession of a letter written by Bhat which claims there were some unfair means reported during the conduct of exams.

Bhat, writes in the letter, that there are "some complaints against the examination process" and asks the CID department to make in depth verification so that the examination process remains transparent and no one is favoured.

Peer Mansoor, vice chairman, KVIB, a close aide of CM Mufti and senior PDP functionary, told CNN-News18 that proper recruitment norms were followed in the selection.

"This is the fairest selection in the history of KVIB. We are nowhere in the picture. We outsourced the conduct of exams to a private reputed agency and they handed over the final list," he said.

Aroot's selection, however, is being questioned by candidates who have alleged rules were flouted to accommodate him.

The candidates alleged that the selection of candidates for various posts was handed over to a private recruitment agency instead of the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection and Recruitment Board (JKSSRB) or Jammu and Kashmir Public Services Commission (JKPSC) which conducts all such exams for non-gazetted posts.

They also said 15 to 18 candidates were shortlisted for interview to fill in a single post against a set norm of 3:1 or 5:1. Calling so many candidates for interview was done to manipulate selection, they alleged.

Further, they alleged 30 marks were kept for the interview and only 60 for the written test. The JKSSRB and JKPSC generally keeps 80 and 20 marks for written and interviews for filling up government vacancies. The remaining 10 marks earmarked for 'work experience'.

Defending the selection Mansoor said Mansoor said KVIB follows its own recruitment rules. Farooq Peer, former JKSSRB boss, wrote on Facebook that it would have been proper had the KVIB referred the vacancies to JKPSC or JKSSRB since they are credible bodies for recruitments.

The KVIB had advertised various posts, including that of executive officer, on October 8, 2016. The shortlisted candidates appeared in the written test in August 2017 and the interviews were held in the last week of January.