PDP guns for NC after lieutenant governor sacks 3 J&K govt employees
The termination of services of three employees is the second such termination since chief minister Omar Abdullah took over in October last year. It raises questions about Abdullah’s authority.
After Jammu and Kashmir lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday dismissed three government employees, including a jailed policeman, for terror links, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hit out at the Omar Abdullah-led National Conference-Congress government in the UT, accusing it of toeing the BJP-led Union government’s line.
Sinha invoked Article 311 (2) (c) of the Constitution to terminate the services of Jammu and Kashmir Police constable Firdous Ahmad Bhat, school teacher Mohammad Ashraf Bhat and forest department orderly Nisar Ahmad Khan, who was earlier arrested in connection with the killing of a National Conference minister in 2000.
The provision gives the government the power to sack employees without an inquiry if “the President or the governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry”.
The lieutenant governor acted after investigation by law-enforcement and intelligence agencies clearly established the terror links of the three government employees. With this, 69 government employees have been fired by the LG in the Union Territory for terror links since abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019.
The termination of the services of the three government employees comes close on the heels of two back-to-back security review meetings by the LG in the twin capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu, directing security agencies to intensify anti-terror operations to neutralise terrorists and terror ecosystem.
The termination of three employees on Saturday is the second such termination since chief minister Omar Abdullah took over in October last year. It raises questions about Abdullah’s authority.
PDP spokesperson and former legislator Firdous Ahmed Tak attacked the Abdullah government, saying: “It is now evident why the National Conference played a key role in dismantling the Gupkar Alliance — the last collective platform resisting the authoritarian BJP regime. With nearly 50 MLAs in the assembly, this party is enabling the BJP-led Union government to persist in its assault on the common masses. The continuous termination of employees on flimsy grounds, the misuse of the Public Safety Act (PSA) to suppress dissent, and the normalisation of everything the BJP did post-2019 are the heavy costs the people are paying for electing this party to power.”
“At this critical juncture, the least we needed was a government with a spine to stand up for Jammu and Kashmir,” Tak added.
On December 3, 2024, NC president and former chief minister Farooq Abdullah had said the government would look into the reasons behind the termination of two government employees on November 30. “The government will find the reasons behind these terminations,” he had told reporters.
On November 30 last year, Sinha had terminated the services of two government officials for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities and terror links.
Since the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, 69 government employees have been terminated.
In the run-up to the assembly elections last year, the NC and the PDP had been vocal critics of “arbitrary” terminations of government employees in the UT. Last year, 11 employee were terminated from their jobs after they were found involved in “anti-national activities”.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had in July dismissed four government employees, including two police constables, for their alleged involvement in anti-national activities and narco-terrorism.
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