Shadow Correspondent
Jammu, MAY, 13
Launching a scathing attack on J&K Bank for its extremely biased approach in selections against Jammu region, a strong contingent of Panther activists spearheaded by Mr. Harsh Dev Singh Chairman JKNPP and Mr. Yash Paul Kundal State President Young Panthers staged a thunderous protest demonstration at Exhibition Ground in Jammu today. The agitated protesters while raising slogans accused the State’s largest financial institution of making contemptuous mockery of the selection process for the Probationary Officers besides discriminating against Jammu youth in selections at all levels in the Bank.
Addressing the media, Mr. Harsh Dev Singh regretted that the credibility of JK Bank once again was mired in controversy soon after it declared the merit list of qualifying candidates for the PO mains exams. “Throwing the slogans of Accountability and Transparency to winds, the Bank once again was accused of subverting merit lists on political, extraneous and discriminatory grounds”, rued Harsh. He wondered over the bizarre mechanism of selection adopted by the bank in which the District wise lists of candidates have been prepared for filling the posts of Probationary Officers. While all the list of officers in all the departments including J&K Bank are issued on State level, a unique phenomenon arrogated by the J&K Bank authorities has raised eyebrows in the ongoing selection process of POs, he observed.
He further alleged that the only objective behind the highly scandalous proposition of District level merit lists of officers was to subvert the State level merit list and to thereby confer benefits upon favourites and blue eyed candidates. He said that through the cut off for all aspiring candidates has been fixed un-formally at 40% in view of public pressure, the intentions of the Bank stand thoroughly bared and exposed.
Urging upon the vigilante organizations to take cognizance of the highly opprobrious and irregular practices having been adopted by the J&K Bank in the past, Mr. Singh threatened to launch a full throttle campaign against all malpractices committed in the functioning of the said bank.
He said the J&K Bank had been under a storms eye in the past as well for manipulations and fraudulent practices which however were disregarded due to the patronage of the helmsmen. He regretted that no enquiry was held and none made accountable despite the State Governor himself making a statement in the media about last year the violation of norms and huge backdoor appointments having been made by the said bank.
He claimed that District wise lists of POs had been prepared only due to low merit of candidates in Kashmir division who could be brought within the consideration zone only by resorting to such gimmickry.
Pointing towards the regional bias in the matter of appointment of J&K Bank Chairman, Mr. Singh questioned as to why the top position in the leading financial institution of the state was always given to Kashmir based officer. Is there no one in Jammu region competent to hold the post of J&K Bank Chairman, he argued. “We just can’t trust the Bank authorities despite change of criteria. The selection process of Bank should be monitored by a Judge of the High Court”, said Singh.
Prominent among those who spoke on the occasion included Rajesh Padgotra, Gagan Partap, Capt. Anil Gour, Khajoor Singh, K.K Sharma, Nirmal Kishore, Surinder Chouhan, Rajesh Gondhi, Rampaul Sharma, Mohinder Singh, Shankaar Singh Sanju, Rashpaul Singh, Vishab Singh, Rohit Sharma, Rakesh Verma, Mohan Lal, Romal Singh, Gurjeet Singh, Jeevan Sharma besides others.
