National Conference alleges 'nepotism' in recruitments, asks Mufti to resign

The demand for Mufti's resignation and a judicial probe came after allegations of nepotism in the recruitment in Khadi and Village Industries Board (KVIB).

Ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice-president Sartaj Madni's son figured in the selection list which was released recently. Madni is the maternal uncle of the chief minister.

The appointment of Madni's son, Syed Aroot Madni, as an executive officer in the autonomous KVIB created a furore on social media and evoked strong criticism of the state government.

NC state spokesperson Junaid Mattu said Mufti and her family members "are personally responsible, involved and culpable for not only the KVIB recruitment scam but all such rigged recruitment processes" that had paved way for the "illegitimate and unfair adjustment" of children of PDP legislators and relatives of the chief minister in various government departments and central schemes.

"The chief minister stands accused of patronising and facilitating these recruitment scams and widespread nepotism along with her family members and close political aides and nothing short of a court-monitored, judicial probe is acceptable," Mattu said here.

He said the KVIB list is full of PDP-quota applicants who have been finalised after "murdering" the merit and qualifications of deserving candidates.

“It also includes the close business associate and partner of a PDP legislator, the son of a PDP sympathiser appointed to a senior post by Mehbooba Mufti and apparently another nephew of a cabinet minister. The entire list needs to be probed and quashed to make way for merit and to do justice with those deserving candidates who feel dejected, hopeless and anguished," Mattu said.

Mattu said Mufti cannot compromise on the integrity of the chief minister's chair to appoint her cousins and the kith and kin of her associates to government jobs.

"That is unacceptable and shameful," the NC state spokesperson said, adding "time has come for the chief minister to take moral responsibility and resign with immediate effect".

Mattu said KVIB scam is just the tip of the ice-berg, alleging more than a thousand appointments on political basis have been made in the Jammu and Kashmir Bank including apparently two in the immediate family of PDP vice president Madni and few other children and nephews and nieces of PDP leaders.

The NC state spokesperson also levelled similar allegations against the recruitment processes in central government schemes such as ICDS and questioned the objectivity of the Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) recruitment list released by the Education Department recently.

"All these recruitment processes should be probed through a judicial probe and the proceedings should be monitored by the High Court of J-K. People have lost all faith in the chief minister and her Government,” he said.

Mattu also demanded immediate resignation of the KVIB chairman so that the probe into the "recruitment scam" is not scuttled and diluted.